"^W^J^^ 


THE  UfJIV-R^ITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSIiY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SAN  DIEGO 

SELMtXffiMF 


THE  WOMAN 

HER  WORK 
HER  MESSAGE 

in' 
HARRY  E.  MAULE 


DOUBLEDAY,  PA(^,K  &  COMPAN^' 
GARDEN  CV\'\  NEW  ^ORK 


r 


LIBRARY 


Selma  Lagerlof 


THE  WOMAN,  HER  WORK, 
HER  MESSAGE 

Including    liberal  quotation  from 
Dr.  Lagerlof 's  own  autobiograph- 
ical  writings   and  from 
some   of  her   critics 


BY  HARRY  E.  MATTE 


DOnn.EDAY.  T'AGE  &  CO^rPAXV 

(lAHDKN    (  ITV  1!M7  NKW     VOUK 


Copyright,  1917,  hy 
DOUBLEDAY,  PaGE  &  COMPANY 


NOTE 


9  7? 


This  little  study  of  the  life  and  work  of  Selma 
Lagerliif  is  not  so  much  an  appreciation  or  a  cri-  y  >>^ 
tique  perhaps  as  it  is  an  attempt  to  catch,  and 
present  to  the  American  reader,  some  of  the  back- 
ground from  which  the  author  draws  her  idealism 
and  her  illusive  literary  qualities.  In  so  doing  the 
author  and  editor  has  gone  direct  to  the  fountain- 
head  of  Dr.  Lagerloi's  own  autobiographical  writ- 
ings so  far  as  possible — but  even  these  are  illusive 
and  unsatisfactory  without  some  of  the  plain  facts 
which  we  in  America  would  like  to  know  of  her. 
Therefore,  the  narrative  is  carried  along  through 
Miss  Lagerlof's  own  words  wherever  possible,  but 
for  the  most  part  in  a  simple  direct  statement  of 
her-  life  and  work  and  some  of  the  influences  be- 
hin<l  it.  There  is  probably  no  need  to  explain 
that  the  reasoji  for  publishing  this  sketch  lies  in 
the  ever  growing  interest  in  INIiss  Lagerlof  as 
one  of  the  world's  great  figures  in  literature. 

The  brochure  is  not  for  sale.  As  long  as  the 
printing  lasts  copies  will  be  supplied  gratis  to  all 
who  request  them,  preference  being  given  to  schools 
and  libraries.     Address  the  publishers: 

DOUBLEDAY,  PaGE  &  COMPANY 

*  Garden  City,  New  York 


SELMA  LAGERLOF 


SELMA  LAGERLOF 


THE    WOMAN 

HONORED  by  her  own  generation  and  in 
her  own  country  no  less  than  through- 
out the  whole  civihzed  world,  Selma 
Lagerlof  has  fulfilled  the  happy  portent  of  her 
name.  For  Lagerlof,  literally  translated,  mejuis 
laurel  leaf,  and  the  absorbing  life  story  of  this 
quiet,  calm-eyed  little  Swedish  woman  carries  the 
reader  from  one  crowning  with  laurel  to  the  next. 
The  only  woman  to  win  the  Nobel  Prize  for  Litera- 
ture, she,  shortly  after  that  event  was  made  a  mem- 
ber of  the  exclusive  Swedish  Academy,  and  there- 
fore is  also  the  only  woman  ever  to  sit  as  one  of 
those  eighteen  Immortals. 

Born  at  a  time  when  llie  cold. star  of  realism  was 
in  the  ascendant  in  Scandinavian  literature,  her 
soul  filled  with  idealism,  and  steeped  in  the  romance 
of  ancient   Northland  sagas   she   stands   forth   a 


SELMA    LAGERLOF 


brilliant  exception  to  the  materialism  of  her  contem- 
poraries. Comparing  her  books  with  the  salient 
facts  of  her  Hfe  it  would  be  impossible  to  say  what 
is  so  frequently  said  of  others,  that  her  work  is  in 
any  material  sense  an  autobiographical  reflection. 
Yet  leaving  the  obvious  facts  aside,  the  idealism , 
the  nobility  of  conception,  the  richness  of  imagina- 
tion are  a  true  outpouring  from  the  soul  and  an 
authentic  expression  of  the  author's  reactions 
toward  life.  To  quote  from  the  introduction 
of  Mr.  Henry  Goddard  Leach,  to  the  present  Amer- 
ican edition  of  Jerusalem;  "Although  Miss  Lager- 
lof  has  not  been  without  her  share  of  life's  per- 
plexities and  of  contact  with  her  fellowmen,  it  is 

.  by  intuition  that  she  works,  rather  than  by  ex- 
perience." How  true  that  intuition  has  been  is 
attested  not  alone  by  the  critics,  but  also  by  the 
universal  appeal  of  her  characters  and  the  world- 
wide popularity  of  her  books. 

In  all  her  work  Miss  Lagerlof's  heart  has 
turned  with  greatest  understanding  to  that  life 
in  which  she  was  born,  the  life  of  rural  Sweden 

^  teeming  with  tradition,  responsive  always  to  the 
onslaughts  and  the  miracles  of  Nature. 

Here  she  has  found   material,   which,   though 


THE   WOMAN 


local  in  its  outward  aspects  she  has  been  able  to   I 
clothe    with    that    universal    human    significance 
which   may    be   found   in   nearly   everything   she 
writes. 

So  here  at  Marbacka  Manor,  Sunne,  in  the 
province  of  Varmland,  Sweden,  into  a  large  family 
of  brothers  and  sisters  on  November  20th,  1858, 
was  born  the  little  Selma  Ottiliana  Louisa  Lagerlof . 

Springing  from  Swedish  gentlefolk  of  the  land- 
owner class  (her  father  was  a  retired  army  officer, 
and  her  mother  was  descended  from  a  long  line  of  i 
distinguished  clergymen)  Miss  Lagerlof  from 
earliest  childhood  seemed  destined  for  the  part  of 
an  onlooker  and  an  inter[)reter  of  life.  She  never 
was  strong  enough  to  run  wild  over  the  farm  with 
the  other  children  of  the  family,  and  so,  sitting 
at  home  in  a  deep  chimney  corner  with  the  old 
folks  and  her  books,  she  let  her  childish  imagina-  , 
tion  carry  her  off  on  excursions  which  were  denied 
the  physically  more  active  youngsters. 

When  there  were  no  visitors  at  the  manor  house 
to  enchant  her  childish  fancy  with  the  brave 
legends  of  the  countryside  the  little  girl  had  re- 
course to  books.  Here,  as  we  shall  see  later  she 
also  was  fortunate,  for  not  only  was  she  allowed 


SELMA    LAGERLOF 


to  browse  in  the  ample  library  of  her  father  but 
was  helped  by  both  her  parents  in  her  reading. 
Through  their  broad  culture  and  interest  in  litera- 
ture she  was  led  to  the  best  and  her  natural  taste 
for  romantic  stories  was  fostered  and  directed .  But 
late  hours  with  her  books  was  not  encouraged, 
for  in  one  place  we  are  told  that  during  her  child- 
hood she  "was  allowed  to  read  Tegner  and  Rune- 
berg  and  Andersen"  through  only  twice  each 
winter.  "In  that  way,"  adds  Miss  Lagerlof, 
"I  came  by  my  first  big  debt."  All  of  these  and 
more  the  little  girl  read  and  loved,  varying  her 
wide  reading  with  her  own  childish  attempts  at 
writing. 

Then,  at  the  age  of  nine  the  little  girl  went  to 
Stockholm,  to  spend  the  winter  with  her  Uncle 
and  his  family. 

In  an  essay  entitled  "Two  Predictions"  which 
appears  in  her  latest  volume  "Men  and  Trolls" 
Miss  Lagerlof  describes  the  wonderful  journey 
and  her  impressions  of  the  great  city.  "Men  and 
Trolls"  has  not  yet  appeared  in  English  and  the 
essay  referred  to  has  never  been  translated. 
Here  she  tells  of  her  difficulty  in  becoming 
accustomed  to  city  life,  to  the  confinement,  to 


THE    WOMAN 


the  hard   cobblestone-paved  streets,   and   to  the 
city  ways. 

"I  feel  stupid  and  awkward  with  these  bright 
city  children"  she  says  (using  the  present  tense 
which  is  found  so  frequently  in  Swedish)  "for  I 
talk  the  homely  Viirmland  dialect.  But  there  are 
things  indescribably  wonderful  in  the  old  house 
where  I  stay.  For  one  thing  my  Uncle  has  a  . 
bookcase  full  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  novels.  Then 
there  is  the  theatre."  She  goes  on  to  tell  that 
sometimes  her  imcle  would  give  the  housekeeper 
a  theatre  ticket  and  the  old  woman  would  take 
I  lie  little  girl  and  let  her  stand  in  front  of  her  during 
the  performance.  "But  what  matter,  time  flies 
so  at  the  theatre.  Sometimes  it  is  a  play  and 
sometimes  an  opera — a  rosy  world.  It  is  fortunate 
that  I  had  sat  at  mother's  knee  and  read  Nosselt's 
History,  else  how  could  I  find  my  way.  It  is  not 
a  new  world  after  all  but  rather  my  well  loved 
world  of  romance  presented  in  living  picture^. 
Sometimes  now  in  foreign  lands  I  enter  a  theatre 
and  feel  the  old  thrill  of  expectation. 

"For  myself,"  she  continues,  "I  like  the  folk 
stories,  but  the  old  lady  doesn't  care  for  the  peasant 
plays.     She  really  hurts  me  by  saying  that  the  fair 


SELMA   LAGERLOF 


Helen  is  different  from  other  folks,  for  I  am  in 
sympathy  with  my  own  people." 

In  the  spring  the  little  girl  returned  to  her  home 
and  on  school  holidays  played  theatre  with  her 
brothers  and  sisters.  Their  favourite  piece — one 
suspects  Miss  Lagerlof's  own  favourite  piece — 
was  "My  Rose  of  the  Forest,"  "not,"  she  remarks, 
"because  it  is  the  most  interesting,  but  because 
it  is  the  simplest,  and  in  fact  the  only  one  we  can 
present.  I  have  to  rehearse  them  all.  We  have 
no  prompt  book,  only  my  memory  to  guide  us.  It 
is  I  who,  with  the  help  of  quilts  and  blankets,  make 
the  stage  scenery  and  it  is  I  who  make  up  the 
actors.  I  am  the  only  one  with  any  knowledge 
of  all  these  things." 

Then  she  goes  on  to  describe  the  performance, 
how  the  family  were  the  audience,  and  how  she 
played  the  dual  role  of  heroine  and  of  an  old  man 
with  long  white  hair.  For  the  latter  part,  the 
little  Swedish  girl's  own  yellow  hair  was  rear- 
ranged to  imitate  the  locks  of  the  aged  man. 
"I  wonder,"  she  continues,  "what  the  author 
would  have  said?  Perhaps  he  would  have  been 
pleased. 

"From  that  day  I  long  to  write  great  plays  and 


THE    WOMAX 


not  to  sit  on  a  school-bench  and  waste  my  time  in 
composition  and  arithmetic. 

"At  fifteen  I  have  read  all  the  poets  in  the  house 
and   have  written   my   first   verse."     Here  Miss 
Lagerlof  remarks  that  when  she  first  realized  her 
gift  of  rhyming  she  resolved  to  become  as  great 
as  the  poets  she  had  read.     She  had  always  in- 
tended  to   write   novels   and   plays   but   now   at 
fifteen  she  felt  that  nothing  was  so  desirable  as  to 
write   great   poetry.     One   evening   she    felt    her 
gift  of  rhyming  and  the  whole   night   long   she 
lay    awake    composing    verse   after    verse.     But, 
she  goes  on  to  say,  of  all  the  verses  she  wrote  at 
this  period  there  is  only  one  that  she  remembers 
or  is  pleased   with.     "And  that,"  she  says,   "I 
sometimes  whisper  to  myself  as  I  stand  in  the 
shade  of  the  trees  and  watch  the  evening  sun's 
light    flame    over    the    plain    and    valley.     This 
httle  couplet  reads: 

"Z)t'<  dr  sa  morkt  under  Undarna 
Sa  iingslight  stilla  i  vindarna' 


Roughly  translated: 


It  is  so  dark  beneath  the  Hndens 
The  winds  are  so  ominous! v  still 


10  SELMA   LAGERLOF 

At  twenty  she  is  back  again  in  Stockholm  to 
take  a  competitive  examination  for  entrance  to 
the  Teachers'  College.  She  describes  her  anxiety 
because  the  number  of  students  was  limited  to 
twenty -five  and  there  were  forty  taking  the  exam- 
inations. Finally,  when  she  hears  that  she  is  one 
of  the  fortunate  twenty-five  who  have  passed  in  the 
examinations  she  says  that  she  steals  off  to  the  other 
end  of  the  house  to  be  alone.  She  is  no  longer  help- 
less and  dependent  on  others  but  has  a  career  be- 
fore her  and  is  going  to  manage  her  own  life. 

Thus  in  1882,  after  a  year  at  Sjoberg's  Lyceum 
for  Girls,  in  Stockholm,  Miss  Lagerlof  entered 
the  Teachers'  College  where  she  remained  for 
three  years,  returning  for  all  her  vacations  to  her 
beloved  Varmland  home  where,  as  we  shall  later 
see,  she  was  ever  living  in  the  soul,  taking  deeper 
and  deeper  within  herself  the  legends  of  that 
beautiful,  mystical  land,  for  the  great  book  which 
was  to  turn  the  course  of  her  life. 

Her  studies  completed,  she  received  an  appoint- 
ment to  teach  in  the  Grammar  School  for  Girls  at 
Landskrona,  Province  of  Skane.  There  she  hoped 
to  find  time  for  literary  work,  and  much  that  she  did 
then  was  later  turned  to  good  purpose.     Accord- 


THIO    WOMAN  11 


ing  to  Miss  Lagerlof  s  own  account,  however,  noth- 
ing worth  while  was  accomplished — only  some  son- 
nets in  the  Swedish  magazines,  and  endless  folk 
tales  told  after  school  to  her  pupils. 

This  phase  of  Miss  Lagerlof 's  life  is  told  by  her- 
self in  an  appealing  little  autobiographical  account 
of  how  she  came  to  write  her  first  book  "The 
Story  of  Gosta  Berling"  which,  of  course  will  stand 
as  long  as  her  works  are  known  as  a  classic  of 
Swedish  romance. 


n 

THE    STORY    OF   A    STORY 

{A  digest  of  Miss  Lagerlof's  own  account  of  her  early  liter- 
ary struggles,  publislied  under  the  above  title  in  her  col- 
lection of  short  stories  "  The  Girl  From  the  Marsh  Croft."  A 
charming  and  irresistible  autobiographical  account,  it  has 
nevertheless  all  the  qualities  that  mark  Miss  Lagerlof's  fiction. 
It  i^  characteristic  of  her  b'est  work,  and  typical  of  her  modesty 
and  self  detachment.) 

NCE  there  was  a  story  that  wanted  to  be 
told  and  sent  out  in  the  world.  This  was 
very  natural,  inasmuch  as  it  knew  that 
it  was  already  as  good  as  finished.  Many, 
through  remarkable  deeds  and  strange  events, 
had  helped  create  it;  others,  had  added  their  straws 
to  it  by  again  and  again  relating  these  things. 
What  it  lacked  was  merely  a  matter  of  being 
joined  together,  so  that  it  could  travel  comfortably 
through  the  country.  As  yet  it  was  only  a  con- 
fused jumble  of  stories — a  big,  formless  cloud  of 
adventures  rushing  hither  and  thither  like  a 
swarm  of  stray  bees  on  a  summer's  day,  not  know- 

12 


THE    STORY    OF    A    STOKV 


ing  where  they  will  find  some  one  who  can  gather 
them  into  a  hive. 

The  story  that  wanted  to  be  told  had  sprung 
up  in  Varmland,  and  you  may  be  sure  that  it 
circled  over  many  mills  and  manors,  over  many 
parsonages  and  many  homes  of  military  officers, 
in  the  beautiful  jjrovince,  peering  through  the 
windows  and  begging  to  be  cared  for.  But  it  was 
forced  to  make  many  futile  attempts,  for  every- 
where it  was  turned  away.  Anything  else  was 
hardly  to  be  expected.  People  had  many  things 
of  nmch  more  importance  to  think  of. 

Finally  the  story  came  to  an  old  place  called 
Marbacka.  It  was  a  little  homestead,  with  low 
buildings  overshadowed  by  giant  trees.  At  one 
time  it  had  been  a  parsonage,  and  it  was  as  if  this 
had  set  a  certain  stamj)  upon  the  place  which  it 
could  not  lose.  They  seemed  to  have  a  greater 
love  for  books  and  reading  there  than  elsewhere, 
and  an  air  of  restfulness  and  peace  always  i)er- 
vaded  it.  Here  there  was  never  any  rush  of 
duties  or  bickerings  with  servants,  nor  were  hatred 
and  dissension  given  house  room,  either.  One 
who  happened  to  be  a  guest  in  this  home  was  not 
expected  to  take  life  too  seriously,  but  was  made 


14  SELMA   LAGERLOF 


to  feel  that  his  first  duty  was  to  be  light-hearted 
and  to  know  that  for  one  and  all  who  lived  on  this 
estate  our  Lord  managed  everything  for  the  best. 

As  I  think  of  the  matter  now,  it  seems  to  me 
that  the  story  of  which  I  speak  must  have 
lingered  thereabout  a  great  many  years,  in  a  vain 
longing  to  be  told,  that  it  must  have  enwrapped 
the  place,  as  a  mi§t  shrouds  a  mountain  summit — 
now  and  then  letting  one  of  its  many  adventures 
rain  down  upon  it. 


Sometimes  the  dear  adventurers  came  to  the 
homestead  in  more  tangible  form.  Aged  and 
poverty-stricken  army  officers  would  drive  up 
to  the  house  behind  rickety  old  horses  and  in  rickety 
carryalls,  and  stay  for  weeks  at  a  time.  In  the 
evening,  when  the  toddy  had  put  courage  into 
them,  they  would  talk  of  the  time  when  they 
had  danced  in  stockingless  shoes,  so  that  their 
feet  would  look  small,  of  how  they  had  curled 
their  hair  and  dyed  their  mustaches.  One  of 
them  told  of  how  he  had  once  tried  to  take  a 
pretty  young  girl  back  to  her  sweetheart,  and 
of  being  hunted  by  wolves  on  the  way;  another 


THE   STORY   OF   A   STORY  15 

had  been  at  the  Christmas  feast  where  an  an- 
gered guest  had  flung  all  the  hazel-grouse  at  the 
wall  because  some  one  had  made  liim  believe 
they  were  crows;  a  third  had  seen  the  old  gentle- 
man who  used  to  sit  at  a  plain  deal  table  and 
play  Beethoven. 


It  must  have  been  because  so  many  legends  and 
traditions  hovered  about  the  farm  that  one  of 
the  children  growing  up  there  longed  to  become 
a  narrator.  It  was  not  one  of  the  boys,  however, 
for  they  were  away  at  school  almost  the  whole 
year  and  the  story  did  not  get  much  of  a  hold 
upon  them.  But  it  was  one  of  the  girls — one 
who  was  delicate  and  could  not  romp  and  play 
like  other  children,  and  who  found  her  keenest 
enjoyment  in  reading  and  hearing  stories  about 
all  the  great  and  wonderful  things  which  had 
happened  in  the  world. 

However,  at  the  start  it  was  not  the  girl's  in- 
tention to  write  about  the  stories  and  legends 
surrounding  her.  She  had  not  the  remotest  idea 
that  a  book  could  be  made  of  these  adventures, 
which  she  had  so  often  heard  related  that  to  her 


K)  SELMA   LAGERLOF 


they  seemed  the  most  commonplace  things  in  the 
world.  When  she  tried  to  write,  she  chose  ma- 
terial from  her  books,  stringing  together  stories  of 
the  Sultans  in  "Thousand  and  One  Nights." 
Walter  Scott's  heroes,  and  Snorre  Sturleson's 
"Kings  of  Romance." 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  what  she  wrote  was 
the  least  original  and  the  crudest  that  has  ever 
been  put  upon  paper.  But  this  very  naturally 
she  herself  did  not  see.  She  went  about  at  home 
on  the  quiet  farm,  filling  every  scrap  of  paper  she 
could  lay  her  hands  on  with  verse  and  prose, 
with  plays  and  romances.  When  she  was  not 
writing,  she  sat  and  waited  for  success.  And 
success  was  to  consist  in  this:  Some  stranger 
who  was  very  learned  and  influential,  by  some 
rare  freak  of  fortune,  was  to  come  and  discover 
what  she  had  written  and  find  it  worth  printing. 
After  that,  the  rest  would  come  of  itself.  Mean- 
while nothing  of  the  sort  happened. 


And  so,  one  autumn,  when  she  was  two-and- 
twenty,  she  went  to  Stockholm  to  prepare  herself 
for  the  vocation  of  teacher. 


THE    STORY    OF    A    STORY 


The  girl  soon  became  absorbed  in  Ikt  work. 
She  wrote  no  more,  bnt  went  in  for  studies  and 
lectures.  It  actually  looked  as  though  the  story 
would  lose  her  altogether. 

Then  something  extraordinary  happened.  This 
same  autumn,  when  she  had  been  living  a  couple 
of  months  amid  gray  streets  and  house  walls, 
she  was  walking  one  day  up  Malmskillnad  Street 
with  a  bundle  of  books  under  her  arm.  She  had 
just  come  from  a  lecture  on  the  history  of  literature. 
The  lecture  must  have  been  about  Bellman  and 
Runeberg,  because  she  was  thinlving  of  them  and 
of  the  characters  that  live  in  their  verses.  She 
said  to  herself  that  Runeberg's  jolly  warriors  and 
Bellman's  happy-go-lucky  roisterers  were  the 
very  best  material  a  writer  could  have  to  work 
with.  And  suddenly  this  thought  flashed  upon 
her:  Varmland,  the  world  in  which  you  have  been 
living,  is  not  less  remarkable  than  that  of  Fredman 
or  Fanrik  Stal.  If  you  can  only  learn  how  to 
handle  it,  you  will  find  that  your  material  is 
quite  as  good  as  theirs. 

Thus  she  caught  her  first  glimpse  of  the  story. 
And  the  instant  she  saw  it,  the  ground  under  her 
seemed  to  rock.     The  whole  long  Malmskilhiiid 


18  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


Street,  from  Hamn  Street  Hill  to  the  fire-house, 
rose  toward  the  skies  and  sank  again — rose  and 
sank.  She  stood  still  a  long  while,  until  the  street 
had  settled  itself.  She  gazed  with  astonishment 
at  the  passers-by,  who  walked  calmly  on,  appar- 
ently unconscious  of  the  miracle  that  had  taken 
place. 

Then  and  there  the  girl  determined  that  she 
would  write  the  story  of  Varmland's  Cavaliers, 
and  never  for  an  instant  did  she  relinquish  the 
thought  of  it;  but  many  long  years  elapsed  before 
the  determination  was  carried  out. 


During  these  years  things  were  constantly 
happening  which  helped  mould  it.  One  morning, 
on  a  school  holiday,  as  she  sat  at  the  breakfast 
table  with  her  father,  the  two  of  them  talked  of 
old  times.  He  was  telling  her  of  an  acquaintance 
of  his  youth,  whom  he  described  as  the  most 
fascinating  of  men.  This  man  brought  joy  and 
cheer  with  him  wherever  he  went.  He  could 
sing;  he  composed  music;  he  improvised  verse. 
If  he  struck  up  a  dance  tune  not  only  the  young 
folk  danced,  but  old  men  and  old  women,  high  and 


xilE   STOKY    or   A    STORVT  Itf 

low.  If  he  made  a  speech,  one  had  to  laugli  or 
cry,  whichever  he  wished.  If  he  drank  himself 
full,  he  playetl  and  talked  better  than  when  he 
was  sober,  and  when  he  fell  in  love  with  a  woman, 
it  was  impossible  for  her  to  resist  him.  If  he  did 
foolish  things,  one  forgave  him;  if  he  felt  sad, 
one  wanted  to  do  anything  and  everything  to  see 
him  glad  again.  But  anv  great  success  in  life 
he  had  never  had,  despite  his  wealth  of  talents. 
He  had  lived  mostly  at  the  foundries  in  Viirmland 
as  private  tutor.  Finally,  he  was  ordained  as  a 
minister.  This  was  the  highest  that  he  had 
attained. 

After  this  conversation  she  saw  the  hero  of  her 
story  better  than  heretofore,  and  with  that  a 
little  life  and  action  came  into  it.  One  fine 
day  a  name  was  given  to  the  hero,  he  was  called 
Gosta  Berling.  Whence  he  got  the  name  she 
never  knew.     It  was  as  if  he  had  named  himself. 

Another  time  she  had  come  home  for  the  Christ- 
mas holidays.  One  evening  the  whole  family 
went  off  to  a  Christmas  party  a  good  distance  from 
home  in  a  terrible  blizzard.  It  turned  out  to  be  a 
longer  drive  than  one  would  have  thought.  The 
horse  ploughed  his  way  througU  the  drifts  at  a 


20  SELMA    L.\GERLOF 


creeping  pace.  For  several  hours  she  sat  in  the 
sleigh  in  the  blinding  snowstorm  thinking  of 
the  story.  When  they  at  length  reached  their 
destination,  she  had  thought  out  her  first  chapter. 
It  was  the  one  about  the  Christmas  night  at  the 
smithy.  And  what  a  chapter!  It  was  her  first 
and  for  many  years  her  only  one.  It  was  written 
in  verse,  for  the  original  plan  was  that  it  should 
be  a  romance  cycle,  like  "Fanrik  Stal's  Sagas." 
But  by  degrees  this  was  changed,  and  for  a  time 
she  was  impressed  that  it  should  be  written  as 
drama.  The  Christmas  night  was  worked  over 
to  go  in  as  the  first  act.  But  this  attempt  was 
not  successful,  either;  at  last  she  decided  to  write 
the  story  as  a  novel.  Then  the  chapter  was  done 
into  prose.  It  grew  enormously  long,  covering 
forty  written  pages.  In  the  final  revision  it  took 
up  only  nine. 

A  few  years  later  came  a  second  chapter.  It 
was  the  story  of  the  Ball  at  Borg  and  of  the  wolves 
that  hunted  Gosta  Berling  and  Anna  Stjernhok. 


As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  this  occurred  during  the 
'eighties,  when  stern  Realism  was  at  its  height. 


THE    STORY   OF   A    STORY  21 

She  admired  the  great  masters  of  that  time,  never 
thinking  that  one  could  use  any  other  style  in 
writing  than  the  one  they  employed.  For  her  own 
part,  she  liked  the  romanticists  better,  hut  ro- 
manticism was  dead,  and  she  was  hardly  the  one 
to  think  of  reviving  its  form  and  expression! 
Although  her  brain  was  filled  to  overflowing  with 
stories  of  ghosts  and  mad  love,  of  wondrously 
beautiful  women  and  adventure-loving  cavaliers, 
she  tried  to  write  about  it  all  in  calm,  realistic 
prose.  She  was  not  very  clear- visioned.  Another 
would  have  seen  that  the  impossible  was  im- 
possible. 


The  longing  came  over  her  in  this  manner: 
The  homestead  where  she  had  grown  up  was  sold. 
She  journeyed  to  the  home  of  her  childhood  to  see 
it  once  again  before  strangers  should  occupy  it. 
As  she  was  leaving,  perhaps  never  more  to  see  the 
dear  old  place,  she  decided  in  all  meekness  and 
humility  to  write  the  book  in  her  own  way  and 
according  to  her  own  poor  abihties.  It  was  not 
going  to  be  any  great  masterwork,  as  she  had 
hoped.     It    might    be    a    book    at    which    people 


22  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


would  laugh,  but  anyway  she  would  write  it — 
write  it  for  herself,  to  save  for  herself  what  she 
could  still  save  of  the  home — the  dear  old  stories, 
the  sweet  peace  of  the  care-free  days,  and  the 
beautiful  landscape  with  the  long  lakes  and  the 
many-hued  blue  hills. 

But  for  her,  who  had  hoped  that  she  might  yet 
learn  to  write  a  book  people  would  care  to  read, 
it  seemed  as  if  she  had  relinquished  the  very  thing 
in  life  she  had  been  most  eager  to  win.  It  was 
the  hardest  sacrifice  she  had  ever  made. 

A  few  weeks  later,  she  was  again  at  her  home  in 
Landskrona  seated  at  her  desk.  She  began 
writing — she  did  not  exactly  know  what  this 
was  to  be — but  she  was  not  going  to  be  afraid  of 
strong  words,  of  exclamations,  of  interrogations, 
nor  would  she  be  afraid  to  give  herself  with  all 
her  childishness  and  all  her  dreams!  After  she 
had  come  to  this  decision,  the  pen  began  to  move 
almost  of  itself.  This  made  her  quite  delirious. 
She  was  carried  away  with  enthusiasm.  All,  this 
was  writing!  Unfamiliar  thoughts  and  things, 
or,  rather,  things  she  had  never  surmised  were 
stored  away  in  her  brain,  crowded  down  upon  the 
paper.     The  pages  were  filled  so  quickly  it  aston- 


THE   STORY    OF   A    STORY  23 

ished  her.  What  had  hitherto  required  months — 
no,  years — to  work  out,  was  now  acconipHshed 
in  a  couple  of  hours.  That  evening  she  wrote  the 
story  of  the  young  countess's  tranij)  over  the  ice 
on  Lake  Loven,  and  the  flood  at  Ekeby. 

The  following  afternoon  she  wrote  the  scene  in 
which  the  gouty  ensign,  Rutger  von  Orneclou, 
tries  to  raise  himself  in  bed  to  dance  the  Cachuca, 
and  the  evening  of  the  next  day  appeared  the 
story  of  the  old  Mamsell  who  went  off  to  visit  the 
parsimonious  Broby  clergyman. 

Now  she  knew  for  a  certainty  that  in  this  way 
she  could  write  the  book;  but  she  was  just  as  cer- 
tain that  no  one  would  have  the  patience  to  read 
it  through. 


In  the  spring  of  1890  Idun  invited  prize  com- 
petitors to  send  in  short  novelettes  of  about  one 
liundred  i)ages.  Here  was  an  opening  for  a  story 
that  wanted  to  be  told  and  sent  into  the  world. 
It  nmst  have  been  the  story  itself  that  prompted 
her  sister  to  suggest  that  she  make  use  of  this 
oi)portunity.  Here,  at  last,  was  a  way  of  finding 
out  whether  her   story   was   hopelessly  bad!     IT 


SELMA    LAtJEKLOF 


it  took  the  prize,  much  would  be  gained;  if  it 
didn't,  she  would  simply  stand  where  she  had 
stood  before. 


There  were  only  twenty-four  hours  of  the  prec- 
ious time  left,  and  still  twenty  pages  to  be  written. 

On  this  the  last  day  they  were  all  invited  to  a 
house  party,  and  were  to  be  away  over  night. 
Naturally,  she  too  had  to  go.  When  the  party 
was  over  and  the  guests  had  retired  to  their 
rooms,  she  sat  up  in  the  strange  house  the  whole 
night,  writing. 

At  times  she  felt  very  queer.  The  place  where 
she  was  visiting  happened  to  be  the  estate  on 
which  the  wicked  Sintram  had  once  lived.  Fate, 
in  a  singular  way,  had  brought  her  there  on  the 
very  night  that  she  must  write  about  him  who 
sat  in  the  rocker  and  rocked. 

Now  and  then  she  would  look  up  from  her  work 
and  listen  in  the  direction  of  the  drawing-room, 
for  the  possible  sound  of  a  pair  of  rockers  in  mo- 
tion; but  nothing  was  heard.  In  the  morning, 
at  the  stroke  of  six,  her  five  chapters  were  finished. 


TUK    STORY    OF    A    STORY  25 

This  happened  on  one  of  the  last  days  in  July. 
Toward  the  end  of  August  Idiin  contained  a  notice 
to  the  effect  that  something  over  twenty  manu- 
scripts had  been  received  by  the  editors,  but  that 
one  or  two  among  them  were  so  confusedly  written 
they  could  not  be  counted  in. 

Then  she  gave  up  waiting  for  results.  She 
knew,  of  course,  which  novelette  was  so  "con- 
fusedly written"  that  it  could  not  be  counted 
in. 

One  afternoon  in  November  she  received  a 
curious  telegram.  It  simply  contained  the  words 
"Hearty  Congratulations,"  and  was  signed  by 
three  of  her  college  classmates. 

To  her  it  seemed  a  terribly  long  wait  until  noon 
of  the  following  day,  when  the  Stockliolm  papers 
were  distributed.  When  the  paper  was  in  her 
hands  she  had  to  search  long  before  finding 
anything.  Finally,  on  the  last  page  she  found  a 
little  notice  in  small  type  which  told  that  the  prize 
had  been  awarded  to  her. 

To  another  it  might  have  not  meant  so  much, 
perhaps,  but  for  her  it  meant  that  she  could 
devote  herself  to  the  calling  which  all  her  life  she 
had  longed  to  pursue. 


26  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


There  is  but  little  to  add  to  this:  The  story 
that  wanted  to  be  told  and  sent  out  in  the  world 
had  begun  to  move  toward  its  goal.  Now  it  was 
to  be  written,  at  least,  though  it  might  take  a  few 
years  to  complete  it. 

She  who  was  writing  the  story  had  gone  to 
Stockholm  about  Christmas  time,  after  she  had 
received  the  prize. 

The  editor  of  Idun  volunteered  to  publish  the 
book  as  soon  as  it  was  finished. 

If  she  could  ever  find  time  to  write  it ! 

The  evening  before  she  was  to  return  to  Lands- 
krona  she  spent  with  her  loyal  friend,  Baroness 
Adlersparre,  to  whom  she  read  a  few  chapters 
aloud. 

"Esselde"  listened,  as  only  she  could  hsten! 
After  the  reading  she  sat  quietly  thinking.  "How 
long  will  it  be  before  all  of  it  is  ready  .f^"  she  asked 
finally. 

"Three  or  four  years." 

Then  they  parted. 

The  next  morning,  two  hours  before  she  was  to 
leave  Stockholm,  she  received  a  message  from 
Esselde,  asking  her  to  come  to  her  before  leaving 
town. 


VUE    STORY    OF   A    STORY 


The  old  baroness  was  in  hvv  most  |)ositive  and 
determined  mood.  "Now  you  must. take  a  leave 
of  absence  for  a  year  and  finish  the  book,"  she 
said,  "I  shall  procure  the  necessary  funds." 

Fifteen  minutes  later  the  girl  was  on  her  way 
to  the  Principal  of  the  Teachers'  College  to  ask 
her  assistance  in  securing  a  substitute. 

At  one  o'clock  she  was  happily  seated  in  the 
railway  carriage.  But  now  she  was  going  no 
farther  than  Sormland,  where  she  had  good  friends 
who  lived  in  a  charming  villa. 

And  so  they — Otto  Gumaelius  and  his  wife — 
gave  her  the  freedom  of  their  home — freedom  to 
work,  and  peace,  and  the  best  of  care  for  nearly  a 
year,  until  the  book  w'as  finished. 

Now,  at  last,  she  could  write  from  morning  till 
night.     It  was  the  happiest  time  of  her  life. 

But  when  the  story  was  finished  at  the  close  of 
the  summer,  it  looked  strange.  It  was  wild  and 
disjointed — ^the  connecting  threads  were  so  loosely 
drawn  that  all  the  parts  seemed  bent  upon  follow- 
ing their  old  inclination  to  wander  off,  each  on 
its  own  way. 

It  never  became  what  it  should  have  become. 
Its  misfortune  was  that  it  had  been  compelled  to 


28  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


wait  so  long  to  be  told.  If  it  was  not  properly 
disciplined  and  restrained,  it  was  mostly  because 
the  author  was  so  overjoyed  by  the  thought 
that  at  last  she  had  been  privileged  to  WTite 
it. 


in 

HER    WORK 

"She  is  an  idealist  pure  and  simple  in  a  world  given  over  to 
realism,  yet  such  is  the  perfection  of  her  style  and  the  witchery 
of  her  fancy  that  a  generation  of  realists  worship  her.'' — The 
London  Times. 

IN  THE  foregoing  pages  we  have  seen  how 
Miss  Lagerlof  started  her  Hterary  career; 
how  in  spite  of  severe  handicaps  her  very 
first  work  was  crowned  with  distinguished  success, 
foreshadowing  that  fate  which  so  truly  fulfills  the 
promise  of  her  name.  We  have  seen  how  the 
creation  of  "The  Story  of  Gosta  Berling"  made 
it  possible  for  her  to  give  up  teaching  and  devote 
her  whole  time  and  thought  to  her  writing. 

Then  what  of  the  other  books  that  followed? 
What  account  has  she  made  of  her  opportunity 
and  by  what  work  did  she  achieve  her  present 
exlialted  position? 

To  i)lace  her  in  a  word  is  of  course  impossible, 
yet  perhaps  the  above  quoted  passage  from  The 

29 


30  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


London  Times  gives  as  true  a  summary  of  her 
position  as  necessary.  One  of  her  admirers  has 
said  that,  gazing  down  a  forest  valley  dotted  with 
little  redroofed  Swedish  farmhouses  and  black 
roofed  churches  she  knows  exactly  what  is  trans- 
piring within.  Moreover,  it  might  further  be 
said  that  she  knows  just  what  is  going  on  in  the 
hearts  of  the  inhabitants. 

Viewing  her  work  as  a  whole  it  reveals  a  biblical 
simplicity  of  style,  the  trusting  heart  of  a  child 
and  at  the  same  time  the  mystic  insight  of  a  seer. 
Speaking  of  Dr.  Lagerlof  in  his  volume  of  inter- 
pretation "Voices  of  To-Morrow"  Edwin  Bjork- 
man  says:  "Selma  Lagerlof  is  one  of  the  great- 
est of  an  increasing  group  of  writers  who  represent 
a  synthesis  of  two  pKst  literary  epochs,  and  who, 
for  this  reason,  must  be  held  especially  represen- 
tative of  the  literary  epoch  that  is  now  coming. 
She  has  revived  not  only  the  courage  but  the  abil- 
ity to  feel  and  dream  and  aspire  that  belonged  to 
the  scorned  romanticists  of  the  early  nineteenth 
century.  But  this  recovery  of  something  long  held 
to  be  lost  and  outlived  forever  she  has  achieved  for 
us  without  surrender  of  that  intimate  connection 
between  poetry  and  real  life  which  was  established 


MKU    ^\()UK  31 


by  the  naturalists  in  the  latter  half  of  the  same  cen- 
tury." Sodeep  is  her  message  as  J.  B.  Kcrfoot  said 
in  Life  that,  "the  wise  cannot  find  bottom  nor 
the  child  get  beyond  its  depth."  English  critics 
have  compared  her  with  George  Eliot,  but  her 
literary  traditions,  sprung  from  the  rich  folklore 
of  S\N?feden  and  the  wide  reading  of  a  cultivated 
Scandinavian  home,  defy  the  ordinary  catch-as- 
catch-can  comparisons  of  literary  criticism.  She 
"  is  as  national "  says  Walter  Prichard  Eaton,  "  as  a 
song  by  Grieg  or  a  play  by  Tchekhov.  And  like 
all  deeply  national  art,  it  is  therefore  universal.'' 
Of  these  things,  however.  Miss  Lagerlof  with 
characteristic  modesty  herself  has  spoken.  In 
her  Nobel  Prize  address,  which  is  quoted  later  in 
this  paper  she  dwelt  feelingly  upon  her  literary 
inlieritance.  Still,  we  feel  that  Selma  Lagerlof  is 
— just  Selma  Lagerlof  because  of  her  complete 
independence  of  accepted  forms  and  because  of 
her  very  abundance  which  bursts  through  the 
conventional  bounds  of  technique  to  find  its  own 
meaning  in  life's  drama. 

In  her  choice  of  material  Dr.  Lagerlof  usually 
selects  the  common  clay  of  mankind,  but  in  the 
infinite  fineness  of  her  tooling,  we  see  the  object 


32  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


in  all  its  universality,  so  that  every  heart  is  touched, 
every  mind  is  led  to  understand  the  inscrutable 
ways  of  life  with  her  people.  And  in  the  light  of  her 
inner  vision  even  inanimate  objects  are  touched 
with  the  quickening  influence  so  that  we  come  to 
feel  the  dark  woods,  the  sleeping  waters,  the  gray 
northern  stones  and  the  tender  green  things  of 
spring  to  be  an  eternal  part  of  the  woof  of  her 
dream.  To  her  there  is  no  definite  line  of  demar- 
cation between  the  conscious  and  the  unconscious, 
the  animate  and  the  inanimate.  Through  her  con- 
stant mastery  over  the  bounds  of  the  merely  physi- 
cal we  come  to  realize  that  when  she  tempts  us  into 
far-off,  fantastic  worlds  of  her  own  making,  her  ulti- 
mate object  is  to  help  us  see  the  inner  meanings 
of  the  too  often  over-emphasized  superficial  act- 
ualities of  our  own  existence. 

"Reading  Selma  Lagerlof,"  says  the  Swedish 
composer,  Hugo  Alfven,  "is  like  sitting  in  the 
dusk  of  a  Spanish  cathedral.  .  .  .  Afterward, 
one  does  not  know  whether  what  he  has  seen  was 
dream  or  reality,  but  certainly  he  has  been  on 
holy  ground."  In  the  same  strain,  to  quote  one 
of  our  own  American  critics,  Mr.  Henry  Goddard 
Leach  of  the  American  Scandinavian  Foundation, 


03  .2 

^  ~o 

=^  § 

1" 

:£«  S 

tK     Cti  CO 

r»i      "l  n1 

.2  :0  Ji 

~   0)  o 

IJii  ^  *J  > 

■ff    (-  0)  I— ! 


4)  • 


—    O 


C 

a 


1)  53 


II  KU    WORK  ,"».? 


said  in  his  warmly  appreciative  introduction  to 
"Jerusalem":  "The  average  mind,  whether  Swed- 
ish or  Anglo-Saxon,  soon  wearies  of  heartless 
preciseness  in  Hterature  and  welcomes  an  idealism 
as  wholesome  as  that  of  Miss  Lagerlcif.  Further- 
more, the  Swedish  authoress  attracts  her  readers 
by  a  diction  unique  unto  herself  as  singular  as 
the  English  sentences  of  Charles  Lamb.  Her 
style  may  be  described  as  prose  rhapsody  held  in 
restraint,  at  times  passionately  breaking  its  bonds. 
.  .  .  It  is  by  intuition  that  she  works  rather 
than  by  experience.  .  .  .  She  sees  her  char- 
acters with  w^oman's  warm  and  delicate  sympathy 
and  w^ith  the  clear  vision  of  childhood.  .  .  . 
Selma  Lagerlcif  takes  her  delight  in  developing, 
not  the  psychology  of  the  unusual  but  in  analyzing 
the  motives  and  emotions  of  the  normal  mind." 

Thus  out  of  the  multitude  of  her  characters  not 
one  is  there  who  does  not  stand  out  as  an  interpre- 
tation of  the  Great  Enigma,  and  of  the  universal 
human  traits  which  guide  our  destinies.  There 
is  Ingmar  Ingmarsson  who  scarified  his  love  that 
he  might  retain  the  Ingmarsson  farm;  and  big 
Ingmar  who  communed  with  his  long  dead  father 
to  determine  his  roiirsr  in  choosing  public  shame  to 


34  SELMA    LAGERLOP^ 


right  the  wrong  that  he  had  done  "because  it  is 
the  way  of  we  Ingmarssons."  Then  we  have 
happy,  carefree  Gosta  BerHng  "weakest  and  strong- 
est of  men"  perennial  playboy  of  the  northern 
world  of  heedless  joy  and  tragedy;  and  his  impe- 
cunious followers  the  Cavaliers,  the  pensioners  at 
Ekeby.  Who,  that  has  ever  read  of  him  can 
forget  poor  old  Jan  of  Rufluck  Croft,  that  lowly 
Emperor  of  Portugallia,  who  as  his  good  Katrina 
said,  "is  wiser  than  we  know."  Can  we  ever 
forget  his  arrival  at  the  pier  intending  to  protect 
his  little  Glory  Goldie  Sunnycastle  from  her  en- 
emies, "Pride  and  Hardness,  Lust  and  Vice." 

And  of  the  women,  contrast  the  indomitable 
Mistress  at  Ekeby  with  fair  Gertrude  of  "Jerusa- 
lem", a  frail  flower  mighty  in  her  spiritual  strength; 
or  with  the  fascinating  Marianne,  gay,  frivolous, 
lightsome,  yet  always  introspective  until  she  was 
Hfted  out  of  herself  by  Gosta. 

Impossible  to  mention  them  all,  a  goodly  host, 
whom  the  world  is  the  better  off  and  the  happier 
for  knowing. 

To  resume  where  Miss  Lagerlof  left  off  in  her 
inimitable  "The  Story  of  a  S.ory,"  it  may  be  said 
that  "Gcsta  Berling"  was  published  in  book  form 


HER    WORK  f},) 


in  Sweden  in  1894.  Idealism  in  a  world  of  realism; 
a  romance  amidst  the  smother  of  gray  Scandina- 
vian pessimism,  this  saga  of  Gosta  Berling,  poet, 
philosopher,  carefree  vagabond  of  Loven's  sunny 
shores,  became  the  epic  of  \'armland,  and  her 
countrymen  gave  full  honour  to  its  writer.  Soon 
the  book  was  translated  and  published  in  all  the 
other  European  countries.  In  1899  it  appeared 
in  the  United  States  in  the  translation  of  Pauline 
Bancroft  Flach. 

Of  jVIiss  Lagerlof's  three  great  novels,  "Gosta 
Berling,"  "Jerusalem,"  and  "The  Emperor  of 
Portugallia,"  it  must  forever  remain  a  matter  of 
individual  taste  as  to  which  is  the  best.  But 
whichever  one  of  these  may  be  chosen  by  the 
critic,  one  will  always  be  tempted  to  place  on  a  par 
with  it  her  great  juvenile  classics  "The  Wonderful 
Adventures  of  Nils"  and  "The  Further  Adven- 
tures of  Nils." 

A  brief  description  of  "The  Story  of  Gcista 
Berling"  perhaps  may  not  be  out  of  order  here 
after  so  much  has  been  said  in  the  foregoing  pages. 

Consult  the  map  of  modern  Sweden  and  in  the 
province  of  Varmland  one  finds  Lake  Fryken, 
and  upon  its  shores  the  village  of  Sunne.     It  is 


36  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


here  in  the  old  rectory,  Marbacka  Manor,  that 
Miss  Lagerlof  grew  to  womanhood,  and  it  is  here 
that  she  now  hves.  This,  and  the  country  round- 
about is  the  setting  for  "Gosta  Berhng."  Lake 
Fryken  is  Lake  Loven,  or,  as  she  so  frequently  calls 
it  "Long  Lake," and  Marbacka  is  Liljecrona's  Lov- 
dalla  of  "Gosta  Berling,"  "Liljecrona's  Home" 
and  of  so  many  other  of  her  stories. 

At  the  opening  of  "The  Story  of  Gosta  Berling," 
the  hero,  an  outcast  minister  of  the  gospel,  is 
rescued  by  the  Mistress  of  Ekeby  from  a  snow- 
bank where  he  had  cast  himself  down  to  die. 
What  more  magnificent  figure  in  all  fiction  than 
this  masterful  lady  of  the  seven  iron  works ! 
When  first  Gosta  saw  her  she  was  "on  the  way 
home  from  the  charcoal  kilns  with  sooty  hands 
and  a  clay  pipe  in  her  mouth,  dressed  in  a  short 
unlined,  skeepshin  jacket  and  a  striped  homespun 
skirt,  with  tarred  shoes  on  her  feet  and  a  sheath 
knife  in  her  bosom."  Ah  yes,  a  wonderful  woman ! 
Hear  her  own  words,  "If  I  wave  one  finger  the 
governor  comes,  if  I  wave  with  two  the  bishop 
comes,  and  if  I  wave  with  three  all  the  chapter 
and  the  aldermen  and  mine-owners  in  Varmland 
dance  to  my  music." 


HER    WORK 


And  to  llio  bachelors  wing  in  the  great  manor 
house  at  Ekeby  where  Hved  lier  pensioners  at 
leisured  ease  she  l)roiight  Gosta  Berling,  drunken 
preacher,  poet,  "lord  of  10,000  kisses  and  13,000 
love  letters."  Gosta  Berling  whom  all  women 
love  and  who  loves  them  all — but  deceives  them 
not — who  is  yet  "strongest  and  weakest  of  men" 
a  drunkard,  yet  heroic,  a  scamp,  yet  noble  and 
self-sacrificing,  a  tremendous  force  for  evil,  and  a 
tremendous  force  for  good.  On  Christmas  Eve 
the  pensioners  who  find  shelter  beneath  this 
woman's  hospitable  roof  hold  a  revel  in  the  old 
smithy.  From  the  forge  steps  the  devil  in  full 
panoply  of  hoofs  and  horns  and  reveals  to  them 
the  terrible  compact  which  their  benefactress 
has  made  with  him  to  atone  for  her  sins.  And  so, 
these  shameless  cavaliers  in  hypocritical  self- 
righteousness  drive  forth  the  one  who  had  sheltered 
them.  And  even  Gosta  Berling,  most  lately  in- 
debted to  the  iron  mistress,  sits  quiescent  during 
her  humiliation  and  expulsion. 

For  a  year  the  pensioners  run  the  seven  estates  to 
suit  themselves.  Their  lives  are  filled  with  mad 
pranks  and  insane  adventures.  "How  are  you  all 
at  Ekeby?  "  the  people  ask.     "  Milk  and  honey  flow 


SELMA    LAGERLOF 


there,"  answers  the  poet  Gosta.  "We  empty  the 
mountains  of  iron  and  fill  our  cellar  with  wine.  The 
fields  bear  gold  with  which  we  gild  life's  misery, 
and  we  cut  down  our  woods  to  build  bowling  alleys 
and  summer  houses." 

Milk  and  honey  indeed!  And  while  the  pen- 
sioners dance  the  seven  estates  go  to  rack  and  ruin, 
the  old  mistress  stalks  about  the  country  with  a  beg- 
gar's crutch.  It  is  during  these  mad  pranks  that  we 
meet  the  fascinating  Marianne  Sinclair,  Ebba 
Dohna,  the  lowly  broom  girl,  Anna  and  many  other 
women  who  could  not  resist  the  charms  of  Gosta 
Berling's  personality.  Above  all,  we  remember  the 
gentle  Countess  Elizabeth  who,  conscience  stricken 
at  her  own  unwelcome  passion  for  the  poet,  deserts 
her  home  and  pettish  husband.  Divorced  and 
a  homeless  wanderer,  fate  brings  her  at  last  to  a 
refuge  at  Ekeby.  Here  she  asks  of  Gosta  a  su- 
preme sacrifice.  They  are  married  and  through 
her  influence  Gosta  Berling's  redemption  is  ac- 
complished. The  manor  house  is  rebuilt,  the 
contract  with  the  devil  is  cancelled,  the  rule  of  the 
pensioners  is  ended,  and  together  the  Countess  and 
Gosta  spend  their  lives  in  glorious  self-renunciation. 

At  the  end  the  old  mistress  returns  home  to  die. 


HEIl    WORK  f50 


For  her  ancient  sin  was  the  storm  of  God  let  loose, 
bringing  ruin  and  destruction  in  its  path,  but  at 
the  end  sweeping  the  heavens  clear  of  clouds. 

Thus  has  ]\Iiss  Lagerlof  woven  from  the  skeins 
of  countryside  legend  a  wonderful  tapestry  of 
Vtirmland.  A  tapestry  of  rich  colours  and  great 
crude  figures  it  is,  but  her  gentle  humour,  her  ever 
present  idealism,  and  the  invariable  delicacy  of 
her  style  have  set  it  apart  from  anything  which  she 
or  any  other  Scandinavian  writer  has  done. 

Miss  Lagerliif's  next  work,  a  book  of  short 
stories  entitled  "Invisible  Links"  was  published 
in  1894.  Many  of  the  stories  are  based  on  the  old 
Swedish  sagas,  and  in  all  of  them  we  feel  the  very 
spirit  of  the  North;  the  romance  which  broods 
over  the  desolate  forests  and  peoples  the  wilderness 
with  supernatural  beings.  The  title  of  the  book 
is  intended  to  convey  llie  relation  of  human  beings 
to  these  manifestations  of  nature.  For  in  some 
hidden  half-comprehended  way  thyir  lives  are 
linked  with  the  animating  spirit  which  controls  the 
elements.  Unlike  the  characters  of  "GostaBerling" 
the  people  in  these  tales  are  mostly  humble 
peasants,  fisher  folk  and  other  toilers,  and  as  one 


40  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


critic  said,  the  events  are  narrated  so  that  one 
not  only  sees  the  immediate  story  in  hand  but 
the  entire  hves  of  the  individuals  involved.  The 
book  was  translated  by  Mrs.  Flach  and  published 
in  this  country  in  the  fall  of  1899.  The  critics 
here  were  extravagant  in  their  praise  of  Miss 
Lagerlof  as  a  short  story  writer,  comparing  her 
favourably  with  Kipling,  Hawthorne,  and  Poe. 
Following  the  publication  of  "Invisible  Links" 
King  Oscar  of  Sweden  and  his  son  Prince  Eugen 
(widely  known  as  a  talented  and  successful  land- 
scape painter)  extended  financial  aid  to  Miss  Lager- 
lof who  also  was  awarded  at  this  time  a  small  sti- 
pend by  the  Swedish  Academy  in  acknowledgment 
of  her  achievements.  The  same  year,  in  company 
with  Sophie  Elkan,  the  author,  she  made  her  first 
trip  to  Italy.  The  immediate  result  of  that  trip 
was  "The  Miracles  of  Antichrist,"  published  in 
Sweden  in  1897,  and  in  this  country  in  Mrs. 
Flach's  translation  in  the  spring  of  1899. 

In  this  book  Miss  Lagerlof  showed  herself 
completely  at  home  among  the  legends  and  folk 
tales  of  Sicily.  It  is  rich  in  the  warm  colours 
of  the  South  and  apparently  her  understanding 


HER    WORK  41 


of  the  hot  blooded  Sicilians  is  as  great  as  it  is  of 
the  introspective  Swedish  people.  There  are 
characters  in  this  book  long  to  be  remembered 
but  it  is  in  the  development  of  the  theme  that  we 
chiefly  marvel.  She  takes  as  her  text  the  ancient 
Sicilian  legend  which  says:  "When  Antichrist 
comes  he  shall  seem  as  Christ.  There  shall  be 
great  want,  and  Antichrist  shall  go  from  land  to 
land  and  give  bread  to  the  poor.  And  he  shall 
find  many  followers."  Upon  this  she  builds  a 
colorful  tale  of  modern  Sicily  at  the  time  when 
revolutionary  Socialism  swept  the  island,  making 
heavy  inroads  upon  the  influence  of  the  Church. 

An  Englishwoman,  coveting  the  wonderful  image 
of  the  Christchild  in  the  church  at  Rome,  makes 
an  exact  duplicate,  except  that  upon  the  crown 
of  the  spurious  image  is  scratched  the  legend 
"My  Kingdom  is  only  of  this  World."  While 
pretending  to  kneel  before  the  shrine  she  takes  the 
holy  image  and  puts  in  its  place  her  earthly 
counterfeit.  Months  afterward  a  miracle  comes 
to  pass  in  that  the  church  bells  ring,  and  the  true 
image  of  the  Christchild  is  found  standing  at  the 
door.  The  monks  tear  down  the  false  statue 
and  cast  it  into  the  marketplace,  restoring  the 


42  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


sacred  one  to  its  niche.  The  image  whose  '*  King- 
dom is  only  of  this  world"  is  picked  up  and 
carried  into  Sicily  where  as  Antichrist,  the  personi- 
fication of  agnostic  ideals,  it  works  many  miracles 
of  material  aid  to  the  poor  and  destitute  of  theland. 

To  put  it  broadly  Antichrist  represents  the 
spirit  of  Socialism,  whose  kingdom  was  only 
of  this  world,  recognizing  always  the  rights  of 
man  but  admitting  naught  of  God.  The  story 
ends  with  the  Pope  advising  Father  Gondo  as  to 
the  restoration  of  Christianity  in  the  Sicilian 
towns  which  have  been  won  over  to  Socialism. 
"Father  Gondo,"  said  the  Pope,  sternly,  "when 
you  held  the  image  in  your  arms  you  wished  to 
burn  him.  Why.'^  Why  were  you  not  loving  to 
him?  Why  did  you  not  carry  him  back  to  the 
little  Christchild  on  the  Capitolium  from  whom 
he  proceeded? 

"That  is  what  you  wandering  monj^s  could  do. 
You  could  take  the  great  popular  movement  in 
your  arms,  while  it  is  still  lying  like  a  child  in  its 
swaddling  clothes,  and  you  could  bear  it  to  Jesus' 
feet;  and  Antichrist  would  see  that  he  is  nothing 
but  an  imitation  of  Christ,  and  would  acknowledge 
him  his  Lord  and  Master.     But  you  do  not  do  so. 


HER    AVORK  43 


You  cast  antichristianity  on  the  pyre,  and  soon  he 
in  turn  will  cast  you  there.  .  .  .  We  do  not 
fear  him.  When  he  comes  to  storm  the  Capitol, 
.  .  .  we  shall  meet  him  and  we  shall  lead  him 
to  Christ."* 

"From  a  Swedish  Homestead, "  Miss  Lagerlof's 
next  book  was  published  in  1899,  and  was  brought 
out  in  this  country  in  the  English  of  Jessie  Broch- 
ner,  in  1001. f 

The  book  is  made  up  of  a  novelette  "The  Story 
of  a  Country  House"  otherwise  known  as  "From 
a  Swedish  Homestead,"  the  remarkable  "Queens 
of  Kungahalla"  and  eight  other  shorter  stories. 
Of  these  only  three  "The  Fisherman's  Ring," 
"Santa  Catarina  of  Siena"  and  "The  Emperor's 
Money  Chest"  are  laid  elsewhere  than  in  Sweden, 
the  former  in  Italy,  and  the  third  in  the  "black 
country"  around  Charleroi,  an  allegory  toucliing 
upon  the  labour  troubles  that  then  beset  Belgium. 

It  is,  however,  the  first  story  in  the  vol  nine, 
"The  Story  of  a  Country  House"  that  has  at- 

•  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  story  was  written  before  the  wide  spread 
of  Fabian  and  Christian  Sociahsm,  and  as  such  may  be  taken  as  rather  a  re- 
markable prophecy  by  Miss  Lacier!  )f. 

tA  new  edition  of  this  book  was  published  in  1916  in  format  uniform  with 
Miss  Lagerlof's  later  work,  in  response  to  the  demand. 


44  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


traded  the  greatest  attention.  Here  as  clearly 
as  anywhere  in  her  work  runs  that  vein  of  mystic 
beauty  underlying  all  she  does.  In  the  hands 
of  the  grim  Scandivanian  realists  this  story  would 
have  been  almost  too  harrowing,  but  handled  with 
Miss  Lagerlof's  delicacy  of  touch,  it  becomes  a 
fantasy  nearly  on  a  par  with  "The  Emperor  of 
Portugallia."  The  story  deals  with  a  young 
student  at  Upsala  University  who  goes  into  the 
northern  woods  to  recoup  the  family  fortunes,  and 
who  loses  his  reason  through  self  reproach  and 
pity  when  his  great  flock  of  sheep  are  frozen  to 
death  l^efore  his  eyes  in  a  storm.  This  youth  of 
the  landed  gentry  then  becomes  a  peddler  of  odd 
trinkets  throughout  the  countryside  known  only 
as  "The  Goat"  until  through  love  he  is  restored 
to  his  reason  and  to  his  family. 

Following  the  completion  of  "From  a  Swedish 
Homestead, "  in  1899,  Miss  Lagerlof  made  her 
first  trip  to  the  Orient  from  which  came  her  second 
great  classic,  "Jerusalem."  A  few  years  before  a 
company  of  peasants  from  Nas,  a  severe  parish  of 
the  sturdy  rural  district  of  Dalecarlia,  had  made 
a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  in  order  to  join  a  colony 


HER   WORK  45 


formed  by  a  Mrs.  Edward  Gordon  of  Chicago  who 
had  established  a  mission  there  made  u])  for  the 
most  part  of  Swedish-Americans. 

Thus  the  historical  background  of  ''Jerusalem.'* 
Their  aim  was  practical  as  well  as  spiritual,  for 
the  mission  conducted  a  school,  a  hospital,  and 
otherwise  aided  in  much  needed  public  works. 

Not  only  were  their  early  experiences  in  Jerusa- 
lem of  the  most  harrowing  nature  through  the 
rigours  of  the  unaccustomed  climate,  the  fevers 
which  assailed  them,  and  the  scanty  bounty  of  a 
desert  land  but  also  there  came  back  to  Sweden 
rumours  of  the  most  alarming  sort  of  the  conduct 
of  the  pilgrims  in  the  Holy  Land. 

To  ascertain  the  truth  of  these  rumours,  and  to 
probe  the  cause  of  the  saying,  then  prevalent  in 
Sweden,  that  "Jerusalem  kills,"  Miss  Lagerlof 
made  the  journey  to  Palestine  in  1899-1900. 

Only  too  truly  did  she  substantiate  the  grim 
northern  acceptance  of  an  inevitable  fate  in  the 
Holy  Land.  "Jerusalem  kills!"  It  was  all  too 
true;  for  the  unhappy  Dalecarlians,  removed  from 
their  bracing  northern  climate,  fell  an  easy  prey 
to  the  hardships  of  the  desert.  Death  had  stalked 
among  them,  but  with  that  determination  which 


/ 


46  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


has  won  for  the  Dalecarlians  the  term  of  "the 
backbone  of  the  Swedish  nation"  they  held  to 
their  task.  As  to  the  charges,  it  was  substantiated 
that  the  Swedish  mission  in  its  Hberal  pohcy 
toward  Christian  and  Moslem  alike  had  earned 
the  enmity  of  the  other  missions  there,  making 
easy  traffic  for  the  stories  which  caused  such 
heartache  in  the  Dalecarlian  homesteads. 
Of  these  conditions  Miss  Lagerlof  wrote: 
"Here  the  Catholic  speaks  evil  of  the  Protestant, 
the  Methodist  of  the  Quaker,  the  Lutheran  of  the 
Reform  sect.  .  .  .  Here  envy  lurks;  here  the 
fanatic  looks  askance  at  the  man  of  sound  ideals; 
here  orthodox  contends  with  heretic;  here  one 
finds  neither  pity  nor  tolerance;  here  one  hates  for 
God's  highest  glory's  sake  every  human  being. 
.  .  .  Here  is  the  soulhounder's  Jerusalem. 
Here  is  the  evil  tongue's  Jerusalem.  Here  one 
persecutes  without  cessation;  here  one  murders 
without  weapons.  It  is  this  Jerusalem  that  kills." 
Perhaps  one  of  the  greatest  tests  of  Miss  Lager- 
lof's  artistry  was  the  task  of  weaving  into  a  work 
of  fiction  this  background  of  facts,  which  were  at 
the  time  a  matter  of  pressing  national  importance. 
To  take  facts  as  they  are,  retain  the  panorama-like 


HER  WORK  47 


truth  for  a  background,  and  then  create  in  tlie 
foreground  a  work  of  art  which  is  anytliing  more 
than  an  obvious  and  laboured  superstructure  is  a 
feat  which  few  have  accomplished.  The  raw 
colours  of  the  background  are  yet  too  new,  too 
stark  in  their  insufficiently  understood  meaning, 
to  work  into  a  creative  story. 

Yet  on  her  return  from  the  Holy  Land,.  Miss 
Lagerlof  wrote  the  first  volume  of  "Jerusalem," 
and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  it  hailed  as  her 
masterpiece.  The  book  was  published  in  Sweden 
in  1901,  but  was  not  brought  out  in  this  country 
until  1915  in  the  English  of  Velma  Swanston 
Howard  who  has  translated  all  of  Miss  Lagerlof's 
later  work  and  who  is  her  authorized  representative 
in  this  country.  * 

Just  here  a  word  in  regard  to  Mrs.  Howard's 
untiring  work  in  the  cause  of  Selma  Lagerlof  in 
America  may  perhaps  be  in  order.  She  is  Swedish 
born  but  at  an  early  age  came  to  this  country. 
She  was  reared  in  constant  association  with  both 
Swedish  and  English  scholars  and  is  equally  at 
home  in  both  languages.  As  a  young  woman  she 
returned  to  Sweden  where  she  worked  for  some 


48  SEL.MA    LAGERLOF 


years  as  a  journalist,  somewhat  astounding  the 
leisurely  Scandinavians  with  her  American  methods 
of  newspaper  work.  One  of  her  first  assignments 
— a  "scoop"  on  her  Swedish  colleagues — was  an 
interview  with  her  literary  idol,  Selma  Lagerlof. 
This  meeting  was  the  first  of  many  that  developed 
a  warm  friendship  between  author  and  translator. 

Later  on  at  home  in  America  she  achieved  success 
as  a  writer,  as  a  translator  of  Scandinavian  litera- 
ture and  as  a  lecturer.  In  Miss  Lagerlof 's  work, 
however,  she  finds  her  greatest  delight  for  in  Mrs. 
Howard's  translations  we  feel  this  sympathy  im- 
mediately and  we  perceive  also  that  through  her 
illuminative  translations  we  get  as  deeply  into 
the  inner  meanings  and  subtleties  of  Miss  Lager- 
lof's  creations,  as  it  is  possible  to  do  through  an 
interchange  of  languages. 

In  "Jerusalem"  (Volume  I)  Miss  Lagerlof  is 
concerned  with  the  preparation  for — the  psycholo- 
gical background,  as  one  might  say — the  pilgrim- 
age. The  whole  book  is  laid  in  Dalecarlia,  cen- 
tring around  the  ancient  farm  of  the  long  line  of 
Ingmarssons,  "Big  Ingmar,"  "Strong  Ingmar" 
and  so  on.  Here  we  see  the  very  soul  of  the 
Swedish  people  in  a  series  of  separate,  but  linked 


Q 


y. 


IIKIJ    WOUK  49 


pen-pictures,  the  history  of  two  generations  of  a 
farmer  family  and  the  crisis  of  religious  fantacism 
in  a  rural  Swedish  parish.  Among  the  peasant 
aristocracy  of  Dalecarlia  attachment  to  the 
homestead  is  life  itself.  In  "Jerusalem"  this 
emotion  is  pitted  on  the  one  hand  against  religion, 
on  the  other  against  love.  Hearts  are  broken 
in  the  struggle  which  enables  Karin  to  sacrifice 
the  Ingmar  Farm  to  obey  the  inner  voice  which 
summons  her  on  her  religious  pilgrimage, .  and 
which  leads  her  brother,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
abandon  the  girl  of  his  heart  and  his  life's  personal 
happiness  in  order  to  win  back  the  farm. 

Of  the  book,  Edwin  Bjcirkman,  the  Swedish 
American  critic  and  writer  said,  "The  first  chapters 
alone  are  enough  to  make  it  immortal,"  while  to 
quote  J.  B.  Kerfoot  again,  this  time  from  Everybody's 
"'Jerusalem'  is,  on  the  surface,  only  one  of" the 
simplest  stories  yet,  in  some  strange  way,  it  is  tlie 
story  of  us  all.  And  because  its  author  is  a  child 
and  a  woman  and  a  seer — these  three — in  one, 
a  child  may  read  'Jerusalem,'  or  a  sage  and  be 
equally  enthralled." 

Here  in  sharp  contrast  with  the  irresponsible 
Viirmland  cavaliers  of  "Gosta  Berling,"  we  have 


50  SELMA    LACERLOF 


the  outwardly  stolid  and  plodding  peasants  of 
Dalarne,  or  Daleearlia.  Through  the  witchery 
of  Miss  Lagerlof's  style  we  see  their  cloddish  ex- 
terior, but  we  also  see  them  right  down  to  the 
cores  of  their  very  hearts  and  souls.  And  through 
her  we  see  why  the  Dalecarlians  have  earned  the 
name  of  "backbone  of  the  Swedish  nation."  Here 
we  encounter  a  people  who  for  centuries  have  asked 
first  of  all,  "is  it  right.f^"  "is  it  my  duty.^^";  a  race 
who  recognize  no  class  differences,  who  know  no 
nobility  except  that  of  character.  Here  we  see  a 
people  already  deeply  religious,  stirred  to  their 
very  depths  by  the  Helgumist  movement. 

In  the  opening  chapters  which  comprise  "Book 
One"  we  first  meet  Ingmar  Ingmarsson  ploughing 
in  his  ancestral  fields  and  battling  with  his  con- 
science. A  sullen  churl  is  this  "Little"  Ingmar; 
an  Ingmarsson  with  no  standing  in  the  community; 
an  Ingmarsson  of  all  that  illustrious  line  who 
carries  a  burden  upon  his  conscience.  To  right 
that  wrong,  to  marry  Brita  who  had  strangled 
her  new-born  babe  and  bring  her  to  rule  over  the 
Ingmarsson  farmstead,  after  a  term  in  prison  would 
only  make  matters  worse.  And  so  "Little" 
Ingmar,  as  he  plodded  up  and  down  the  field  after 


iii:i{  woitK  51 


the  plow  took  his  troubles  to  his  long  dead  father 
"Big"  Ingiiiar  as  he  was  known  the  country  round. 
A  daring  feat,  this  collociuy  with  the  dead,  for 
even  so  daring  a  novelist  as  Aliss  Lagerlof,  but 
carried  out  with  sneh  delicacy  the  reader  feels 
no  si>nse  wliatt-ver  of  the  bizarre.  The  decision 
is  reached,  and  in  tlie  face  of  what  he  considers 
certain  ostracism,  Ingniar  goes  down  to  the  city 
to  meet  and  marry  Brita  as  she  comes  out  of  prison. 
But  here  comes  out  the  true  Dalecarlian  stuff. 
Instead  of  being  shunned  Ingmar  is  restored  to 
standing  in  the  community  for  his  action  and  wins 
the  title  of  "Big"  Ingmar. 

Book  Two  carries  us  on  to  that  panorama  of 
Swedish  peasant  life  which  ends  with  the  dramatic 
departure  of  the  Dalecarlians  for  Palestine. 

In  structure  and  technique  it  has  nothing  in 
common  with  the  American  or  English  idea  of 
novel  writing,  yet  from  episode  to  episode  we 
follow  the  characters,  l)it  l)y  bit  getting  deeper 
and  deeper  into  their  souls,  and  little  by  little  , 
understanding  more  clearly  the  inevitability  of  their 
destinies.  Someone  has  called  Miss  Lagerlof  a 
sj'mbolist.  Perhaps  symbolism  is  as  good  a  term 
as  another  for  that   strangely  fascinating  texture 


SELMA    LAGERLOF 


which    knits    all    the    chapters    of    "Jerusalem" 
together  in  one  compelling  epic. 

The  second  volume,  called  in  Swedish  "Jerusa- 
lem in  the  Holy  Land,"  deals  with  the  lives  of  the 
Halgumists  in  Palestine,  but  ends  as  the  first  volume 
began  in  the  ancient  farmhouse  of  the  Ingmarssons. 
This  was  published  in  Sweden  in  1902,  the  year 
following  "Jerusalem  in  Dalecarlia."  It  has  not 
yet  appeared  in  America.* 

Miss  Lagerlof's  next  book  "Christ  Legends" 
was  published  in  1904  and  was  brought  out  in  this 
country  in  Mrs.  Howard's  translation  in  1908. 
This  is  a  collection  of  simple  little  tales  of  the 
visible  miracles  and  inner  mysteries  surrounding 
the  Christ  from  the  time  of  His  birth  and  up  to 
the  time  of  the  Crusades. 

The  Swedish  school  authorities  at  this  time 
feeling  the  need  of  a  school  reader  which  would 
serve  to  keep  ahve  the  rich  store  of  folk  lore  and 
historic  tradition  which  is  the  background  of 
Swedish   life,    and   at   the   same   time   teach   the 


*  It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  announcement  already  has  been  made  by 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  of  the  second  volume  of  Jerusalem  under  the  title  of 
"  The  Holy  City  Jerusalem,  Vol.  II."  Velma  Swanston  Howard  the  translator 
has  been  at  work  upon  this  book  for  nearly  a  year  and  has  only  completed  her 
work  in  time  for  fall  publication. 


WVM    WOHK 


wonders  of  the  country's  geography,  commissioned 
Miss  Lagerlcif  to  write  such  a  book.  "The 
Wonderful  Adventures  of  Nils"  and  "The  Further 
Adventures  of  Nils,"  (1906  and  1907)  were  the 
result. 

If  aught  were  needed  to  secure  forever  the 
place  of  the  writer  in  the  hearts  of  her  countrymen, 
these  books  accomplished  the  purpose.  Published 
in  this  country  in  Mrs.  Howard's  translation  in 
1907  and  1911  respectively,  they  immediately 
achieved  a  popularity  which  none  of  her  previous 
books  had  enjoyed  up  to  that  time.  They  were  rec- 
ognized as  classic  stories  for  children  of  all  ages  and 
were  circulated  widely  through  the  regular  book 
channels,  as  well  as  through  reading  circles, 
schools,  and  special  library  lists.  A  practical 
point  in  regard  to  the  popularity  of  these  books  is 
that  they  have  appeared  in  the  reprint  editions, 
where  they  have  been  put  in  price  within  the  reach 
of  many,  many  thousands  of  children  who  other- 
wise could  not  own  them.  A  handsome  illustrated 
edition  of  "The  Wonderful  Adventures  of  Nils," 
with  pictures  by  Mary  Hamilton  Frye,  also  has 
been  issued  with  success. 

In  the  face  of  such  wide  distribution  it  seems 


54  SELMA   LAGERLOF 


almost  superfluous  to  give  here  any  descriptive 
note  of  the  two  books.  Little  Nils  Holgersson, 
Morten  Goosey  Gander,  the  flock  of  wild  geese 
and  the  other  characters  met  there  are  now  as 
much  a  part  of  the  web  and  woof  of  story  tradition 
in  the  American  child  mind  as  Andersen,  Grimm 
and  Aesop.  Although  these  books  were  Miss 
Lagerlof's  first  work  for  children  they  showed  her 
perfectly  at  home  before  a  juvenile  audience. 
Indeed,  by  many.  Nils  is  considered  the  author's 
crowning  achievement. 

The  year  following,  1908,  appeared  "The  Girl 
From  the  Marsh  Croft"  a  volume  containing  the 
novelette  of  that  title  and  eight  shorter  stories, 
including  "The  Story  of  a  Story"  quoted  in  the 
early  part  of  this  sketch.  "The  Girl  From  the 
Marsh  Croft"  is  a  piece  of  work  as  powerful  and 
at  the  same  time  as  delicately  idealistic  as  the 
first  part  of  "Jerusalem."  The  volume  was 
translated  by  Mrs.  Howard  and  published  in  this 
country  in  1910. 

"Liljecrona's  Home"  appeared  in  1911,  and 
two  years  later  was  translated  and  published  in 


HER    WORK 


this  country  in  the  translation  of  Anna  Barwell. 
While  many  of  the  short  stories  of  Sehna 
Lagerlof  have  been  laid  in  Viirmland,  and  have 
employed  some  of  the  legendary  characters  of 
^'Gosta  Berling,"  here  is  a  whole  novel  centring 
around  the  musician  who,  although  he  had  a 
comfortable  home,  a  loving  wife,  fine  children,  and 
a  bounteous  farm,  must  needs  fritter  away  his  time 
with  the  roystering  cavaliers  at  Ekeby.  "It  is 
not  luxury  and  good  cheer  which  tempt  me  away," 
he  plays  on  his  violin  when  begging  forgiveness 
from  his  wife,  "not  love  for  other  women,  nor 
glory,  but  life's  seductive  changes :  Its  sweetness, 
its  bitterness,  its  riches  I  must  feel  about  me." 
And  here  in  this  book  we  see  at  last  the  restless 
musician  come  home  to  stay,  at  peace  with  the 
world  and  with  his  own  restless  stormswe})t  soul. 
Like  "Gosta  Berling"  "Liljecrona's  Home"  is  laid 
in  the  author's  beloved  Viirmland  and  the  Lovdalla 
(home)  around  which  the  tale  is  written  is  so  much 
like  Miss  Lagerlof 's  own  iNIarbacka  that  one  might 
even  say  it  was  taken  from  it. 

"The  Legend  of  the  Sacred  Image"  one  of  her 
most  delicate  tales  of  the  Holv  Land,  translated 


56  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


by  Mrs.  Howard,  was  made  up  separately  as  a 
Christmas  gift  book  here  and  has  enjoyed  great 
popularity. 

"The  Emperor  of  Portugallia"  appeared  in 
Sweden  in  1914,  and  in  this  country  in  Mrs. 
Howard's  translation  in  1916.  Dr.  Lagerlof's 
latest  collection,  published  last  year  in  Sweden 
under  the  title,  "Men  and  Trolls"  is  made  up  of 
legends,  essays,  and  addresses. 

For  any  comparison  with  "The  Emperor  of 
PortugaUia"  we  must  go  back  to  "Jerusalem" 
and  "The  Story  of  Gosta  Berling,"  for  in  its 
touching  simplicity,  its  spiritual  message,  and  its 
artistic  universality  it  is  comparable  only  to 
the  highest  points  of  the  author's  work.  The 
story  is  so  fresh  in  the  public  mind  that  a  summary 
is  perhaps  unnecessary  but  for  the  sake  of  com- 
pleteness I  should  like  to  set  down  here  a  brief 
outline. 

From  the  highest  critical  judgment  in  this  coun- 
try has  come  genuine  praise  such  as  probably  none 
of  her  previous  books  has  received .  In  this  romance 
is  seen  the  fulfilment  of  that  aim  which  may  be 
found  in  all  her  work,  of  establishing  that  invisible 


HEIt    WORK 


link  between  God  and  man — of  the  seen  and 
unseen,  of  deep  spiritual  motive  and  outward 
action.  Hildegarde  Hawthorne,  one  of  the  first 
critics  in  this  country  to  recognize  the  genius  of 
Sehna  Lagerlof  says  of  "The  Emperor  of  Portu- 
galHa"  in  the  New  York  Times: 

"Who  shall  convey  the  poignant  pathos,  the  serene  beauty, 
the  deep  and  delicate  understanding  of  the  human  heart 
whic'li  are  revealed  in  this  simple  story?  The  very  breath 
of  life  is  in  it,  the  beauty  of  great  art,  the  unconsciousness  of 
greatness.  The  setting  of  forest  and  mountain,  barely  indi- 
cated, yet  intimately  felt,  the  hint  of  magic  and  of  mystery, 
that  is,  after  all,  forever  present  in  life,  the  contact  of  good 
and  evil,  the  joy  that  becomes  sorrow,  the  sorrow  that  grows 
to  a  loftier  and  keener  joy,  all  these  are  here,  all  woven  to- 
gether into  a  web  of  rare  texture,  strong  and  fine." 

Speaking  of  the  spiritual  message  that  Miss 
Lagerlof  brings  in  this  book  Prof.  Stanwood  Cobb, 
of  the  English  Department  at  the  Naval  Academy 
at  Annapolis,  compares  her  to  Rabindranath 
Tagore  and  calls  her  "a  cosmic  genius." 

Of  the  subtlety  of  its  beauty,  Ina  Ten  Eyck 
Firkins,  in  the  Bellman  says: 

"Thought  acts  upon  her  pages  like  sunlight  on  a  sensitive 
plate;  no  material  medium  is  evident,  but  after  the  exposure 
the  impression  is  revealed,  delicate,  distinct,  truthful." 


58  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


While  a  reader  impressed  by  its  beauty  writes 
to  the  pubHshers  to  call  the  book  "a  story,  a  song, 
an  appeal,  and  a  benediction." 

But  to  return  to  the  story  itself: 

"The  Emperor  of  Portugallia"  is  an  epic  of 
fatherhood — a  Swedish  Pere  Goriot,  it  was  called 
in  France — and  of  the  transcendent  power  of  an 
alchemy  which  turned  to  fine  gold  that  which 
before  the  whole  world  was  dross. 

It  is  small  wonder  that  Jan  of  Rufl3uck  Croft 
never  ceased  to  talli  of  the  time  that  his  little 
daughter  came  into  the  world  because  upon  that 
day  a  great  change  came  into  his  life.  When  first 
the  tiny  bundle  was  placed  in  his  arms  and  he 
became  conscious  of  another  heart  beating  in 
unison  with  his  own,  the  churlish  peasant  was  trans- 
formed. The  toil-worn  clod  became  a  being  of 
love  and  happiness,  the  constant  companion  of 
his  little  girl.  On  the  very  next  day  after  her 
birth  he  carried  her  to  the  door  of  the  humble 
cottage,  and  as  the  ruddy  rays  of  the  departing 
sun  bathed  father  and  daughter  in  their  splendour, 
he  christened  her  Glory  Goldie  Sunnycastle, 
Godchild  of  the  Sun. 

And  then,  the  irony  of  fate  that  sent  the  growing 


II  EH    WORK  59 


girl  out  into  the  world  to  earn  money  that  Jaii 
and  Katrina  might  not  lose  their  home!  Appar- 
ently it  was  all  too  etisy,  for  after  the  first  few- 
letters  containing  the  needed  money,  nothing 
more  was  heard  from  the  Godchild  of  the  Sun. 
How  Jan  took  her  absence,  how  he  refused  to 
believe  ill  of  her,  telling  the  neighbours  that  she 
was  away  reigning  over  her  Empire  of  Portugallia 
and  that  he,  the  Emperor  of  Portugallia,  would 
())K'  day  welcome  her  home  with  imperial  splendour, 
constitutes  as  poignant  and  as  deeply  searching 
a  story  as  Miss  Lagerlof  has  ever  done. 

But  this  is  no  cold.  Northern  study  of  Ibsenesque 
ghosts  and  mental  derangements.  "It  is  well,  in- 
deed, that  we  have  her,"  says  the  Boston  Tran- 
script, "for  otherwise  we  should  possess  but  a  one- 
sided understanding  of  the  Northern  lands." 

In  the  climax  we  see  poor  Jan's  sacrifice  made 
good  and  the  spiritual  awakening  of  Glory  Goldie 
accomplished. 

HER    PI^YS 

Since  winning  the  Nobel  Prize,  Selma  Lagerlof 
lias  written  two  plays — both  successes.  The 
first  was  a  dramatization  of  "The,  Girl  From  the 


60  SELMA   LAGERLOF 


Marsh  Croft."  It  is  still  playing  in  Denmark, 
Finland,  Norway,  and  Holland.  It  was  from 
Mrs.  Howard's  translation  of  "The  Girl  From  the 
Marsh  Croft"  that  Marie  Claire  made,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  original  Swedish,  her  dramatization 
of  the  book  for  the  French  stage.  A  pastoral 
comedy  put  on  last  season  at  the  Royal  Theatre, 
Stockholm,  is  Miss  Lagerlof's  second  dramatic 
success. 


Ill 

IIEH    HONOURS 

UNLIKE  so  many  great  figures  of  literature 
Sclma  Lagerlbf  has  received  full  recogni- 
tion in  her  own  lifetime,  both  in  her  own 
country  and  by  foreigners.     Not  the  least  of  her 
honours  does  Dr.  Lagerlof  count  the  tribute  that  has 
been  paid  her  work  abroad,  and  she  treasures  vol- 
umes of  her  books  which  have  been  translated  into 
many  strange  languages.     Her  popularity  in  Amer- 
ica, France,  and  Germany  has  been  every  bit  as 
great  as  at  home.     In  England,  too,  her  works  rank 
in  popular  and  critical  regard  with  the  best  of  the 
British  novelists,  and  large  editions  of  both  "Jeru- 
salem"  and  "The  Emperor  of  Portugallia"  have 
found  a  ready  sale  and  co-incident  with  the  Amer- 
ican uniform  Northland  Edition,  it  is  announced 
that  one  of  the  large  English   publishers   will   do 
likewise.     Besides  her  popularity  in  the  French, 
English,   and    German  speaking  countries,   Miss 
Lagerlof's  books  have  been  translated  into  Rus- 

61 


G2  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


sian,  Spanish,  Danish,  Finnish,  Dutch,  Italian, 
Icelandic,  while  some  of  her  books  have  ap- 
peared in  Arabic,  Hebraic,  Armenian,  and  Ja- 
panese. 

Of  her  honours  at  home  it  is  almost  unnecessary 
to  speak.  She  was  created  Doctor  of  Literature 
by  the  University  of  Upsala  in  1907  and  two  years 
later  was  awarded  the  Nobel  Prize  of  $40,000  for 
literature.  This  prize  is  given  by  that  august  body 
of  eighteen  Immortals,  the  Swedish  Academy,  and 
in  choosing  the  only  woman  who  so  far  ever  has 
received  it,  they  announced  that  the  award  was 
made  "for  reason  of  the  noble  idealism,  the 
wealth  of  imagination,  the  soulful  quality  of  style 
which  characterize  her  works." 

Five  years  later,  in  1914^,  Dr.  Lagerlof  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Academy,  thus  making 
her  not  only  the  first  woman  winner  of  the  Nobel 
Prize  for  literature,  but  also  the  first  and  only 
woman  member  of  the  Swedish  Academy. 

The  award  of  the  Nobel  Prize  to  INIiss  Lagerlof 
was  made  at  a  banquet  given  December  10,  1909, 
at  the  Grand  Hotel,  Stockholm,  by  King  Gustav. 
Her  speech  of  acknowledgment  took  the  novel 
form  of  a  story  which  is  typical  of  the  best  of  her 


HER    HONOURS  03 


work.     It  is  here  quoted  in  part,  as  translated  by 
Mrs.  Velma  Swanston  Howard: 

"Your  Royal  Highness,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

"A  few  days  ago  I  sat  in  a  railway  carriage  on 
my  way  to  Stockholm,  It  was  drawing  on  toward 
evening;  it  was  dark  outside  and  quite  dim  in  the 
coach.  ]My  travelling  companions  were  dozing, 
each  in  her  corner,  and  I  sat  quietly  listening 
to  the  rumbling  of  the  train  as  it  sped  along  the 
tracks. 

"As  I  sat  there,  I  began  to  think  of  the  number 
of  times  that  I  had  journeyed  up  to  Stockholm. 

"The  entire  autumn  I  had  been  living  in  my 
old  home  in  Varmland,  in  the  greatest  solitude, 
and  now  I  was  obliged  to  appear  among  so  many 
people.  It  was  as  though  I  had  become  somewhat 
afraid  of  life  and  movement  back  there  in  the 
solitude,  and  I  grew  troubled  at  the  thought  that 
I  must  make  my  appearance  in  the  world  again. 

"Then  I  got  to  thinking  about  my  father,  and 
felt  a  sinking  at  the  lieart  because  he  was  not  liv- 
ing, so  I  could  loll  him  thai  I  had  been  awarded 
the  Nobel  Prize.  I  knew  that  no  one  would  have 
been  so  glad  of  it  as  he.     Never  have  T  met  any 


64  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


one  who  had  such  love  and  esteem  for  Hterature 
and  writers  as  had  he;  and  if  he  only  could  have 
known  that  the  Swedish  Academy  had  given  me  a 
great  literary  prize!  It  was  a  real  aflQiction  not 
to  be  able  to  tell  him  about  it. 

"And  then  my  thoughts  began  to  play.  'Think 
if  I  were  now  riding  to  my  old  father  in  the 
Heavenly  Kingdom!  I  seem  to  have  heard  of 
such  things  happening  to  others;  why  shouldn't 
they  happen  to  me?' 

"When  I  meet  father,  I  mused,  he  will  probably 
be  sitting  in  a  rocking-chair  on  a  veranda,  facing 
a  sunny  garden  full  of  flowers  and  birds;  and 
naturally  he  will  be  reading  'Frithiof's  Saga.' 
And  when  he  sees  me  he  will  lay  down  the  book, 
push  back  his  spectacles,  rise  and  come  toward 
me.  And  he  will  say,  'Good  day,'  and  'Welcome,' 
and  'So you  are  out  walking,'  and  'How  are  you, 
my  girl?' — in  the  same  old  way. 

"Then,  when  he  has  settled  himself  in  the 
rocker  again,  he  will  begin  to  wonder  why  I  have 
come  to  him — 'Surely  there  is  nothing  wrong  at 
home?'  he  asks  suddenly. 

"'Oh,  no,  father,  all  is  well';  and  I'm  about  to 
relate  the  news,  but  decide  to  hold  it  back  a  little 


IIElt    HONOURS  C5 


while,  and  take  a  roundabout  way.  'I  have  just 
come  to  ask  you  for  some  good  advice,'  I  say, 
assuming  a  troubled  expression.  'The  fact  is, 
I  am  swamped  with  debts.' 

'"I'm  afraid  you  won't  get  much  help  in  that 
line  from  me,'  says  father.  'One  can  say  of  this 
place,  as  they  used  to  say  of  the  old  homesteads 
in  Varmland,  "You  will  find  everything  here  but 
money.' " 

'"But  it's  not  in  a  money  sense  that  I'm  in 
debt,"  I  say. 

"'So  it's  worse  than  that,  is  it.^'  asks  father. 

*  Now  tell  me  all,  from  beginning  to  end,  my  girl ! ' 

'"It's  only  fair  that  you  should  help  me,'  I  say, 

*  because  it  was  your  fault  at  the  start.  Do  you 
remember  how  you  used  to  sit  at  the  piano  and 
sing  Bellman  ballads  to  us  children.'  And  do  you 
remember  how  you  let  us  read  Tegner  and  Rune- 
berg  and  Andersen  twice  every  winter?  In  that 
way  I  came  by  my  first  big  debt.  Father,  how 
can  I  ever  repay  them  for  teaching  me  to  love  the 
sagas  and  their  heroes,  and  the  fatherland  and 
human  life  in  all  its  greatness  and  all  its  frailty .'' 

"As  I  speak,  father  straightens  himself  in  his 
chair,  and  a  lovely  light  comes  into  his  eyes.     'I'm 


66  RELMA    LAGERLOF 


glad  I  had  a  share  in  getting  you  into  that  debt,'  he 
says. 

"*You  don't  mean  to  tell  Ine  that  the  Swedish 

Academy '  says  father  looking  me  in  the  eyes. 

Then  he  understands  that  it  is  true.  And  every 
wrinkle  in  his  old  face  begins  to  quiver  and  his 
eyes  to  fill  up  with  tears. 

"'What  shall  I  say  to  those  who  have  deter- 
mined this  matter,  and  to  those  who  have  named 
me  for  the  honour.'^  Consider,  father,  it  is  not 
only  honours  and  gold  they  have  given  me,  but 
think  how  much  faith  they  must  have  had  in  me, 
when  they  dared  to  distinguish  me  before  the  whole 
world!  How  shall  I  ever  cancel  that  debt  of 
gratitude  .f^' 

"Father  sits  and  ponders  a  while;  then  he  wipes 
away  the  tears  of  joy,  shakes  himself,  and  strikes 
his  fist  on  the  arm  of  the  chair.  'I  don't  care  to 
sit  here  any  longer  and  muse  on  things  which  no 
one,  either  in  heaven  or  on  earth,  can  answer!' 
he  says.  'If  you  have  received  the  Nobel  Prize, 
I  shan't  trouble  myself  about  anything  but  to  be 
happy.' 

"  Your  Royal  Highness, — ^Ladies  and  Gentlemen 
— since  I  got  no  better  answer  to  all  my  queries. 


HER    HONOURS  67 


it  only  remains  for  nie  to  ask  you  to  join  mc  in  a 
toast  of  gratitude,  which  I  have  the  honour  to 
propose  to  tlie  Swedisli  Academy." 

Not  only  in  literal ure  has  Selma  Lagerlof  been 
honoured.  In  her  article  in  the  Vale  Review  on 
"Four  Scandinavian  Feminists"  Hana  Astrup 
Larsen  considers  her  influence  upon  the  feminist 
movement  in  Sweden.  Miss  Larsen  refers  to 
Miss  Lagerlof  as  "the  author  of  the  two  'best 
sellers'  in  Sweden  next  to  the  Bible,  the  most 
beloved  woman  in  Sweden,  and  the  only  one  be- 
sides Ellen  Key  whose  fame  has  spanned  the 
w^orld."     She  then  goes  on  to  say : 

"When  she  abandoned  her  habit  of  reserve 
and  appeared  as  the  outspoken  champion  of 
suffrage  at  the  international  suffrage  congress 
held  in  Stockholm,  in  1911,  the  feminists  of  Sweden 
considered  it  the  most  important  victory  they  had 
won  in  years.  Her  speech,  which  is  worthy  to  be 
preserved  among  the  classics  of  the  movement;  is 
characteristically  Northern  and  breathes  the 
Northerner's  passionate  love  of  home. 

"'Have    we    done   nothing,'    she    asks,    'which 


68  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


entitles  us  to  equal  rights  with  man?  Our  time 
on  earth  has  been  long — as  long  as  his.'  She 
answers  her  own  question  by  saying  that  woman 
has  created  the  home  and  made  it  happy  and  be- 
loved. Man  has  created  the  state  and  made  it 
great;  but  all  his  efforts  have  not  succeeded  in 
making  it  beloved  or  happy.  '  Witness  the  hatred 
between  the  classes;  witness  the  stifled  cries  from 
beneath,  all  the  threats  and  revolutions.  At 
this  very  moment,  when  governments  are  totter- 
ing, admirably  constructed  though  they  be,  when 
social  revolution  appears  at  our  very  door — it  is 
right  here  that  the  great  woman's  invasion  of 
the  man's  field  of  labour  and  of  the  territory  of 
the  state  begins!'" 

This  speech  has  been  translated  into  all.  the 
languages  of  Europe  and  has  been  circulated  widely 
throughout  this  country  by  the  woman  suffrage 
movement. 


IV 

HER  HOME 

A  ND  so  at  last  we  come  to  Dr.  Lagerlof's 
/  %  home  which  is  so  deeply  imbedded  in 
-^  -^  everything  that  she  writes.  For  a  knowl- 
edge of  her  work  it  is  well  to  understand  her  love 
of  the  place  of  her  childhood.  The  early  years  of 
Miss  Lagerlof's  literary  career,  in  fact  from  1897  to 
1908,  were  spent  at  Falun  in  Dalarne  or  Dalecarlia, 
the  home  where  she  got  so  close  to  the  hearts  of 
those  sturdy  self-reliant  peasants  we  met  in 
"Jerusalem."  In  1908,  however,  she  returned  to 
Marbacka  Manor,  the  home  of  her  birth,  the 
Liljecrona's  Lovdalla  of  so  many  of  her  stories,  the 
happy  little  farmstead  where  she  breathed  in  the 
wealth  of  legend  and  folk  lore  which  gave  the 
world  "Gosta  Berling"  and  the  rest. 

But  let  us  have  the  author  herself  tell  us  of 
her  return  to  Marbacka  and  of  her  restoration  of 
the  old  place  to  its  ancient  state  as  she  had  known 
it  through  childhood. 

69 


70  SELMA   LAGERLOF 


111  his  journey  homeward  from  Lapland  with  the 
wild  geese  m  "The  Further  Adventures  of  Nils" 
the  little  boy  is  set  down  at  a  place  in  Viirmland 
called  Marbacka  where  he  falls  into  conversation 
with  Mrs.  Brown  Owl.     Miss  Lagerlof  continues : 

"The  very  year  that  Nils  Holgersson  travelled 
with  the  wild  geese  there  was  a  woman  who  thought 
of  writing  a  book  about  Sweden  which  .would 
be  suitable  for  children  to  read  in  the  schools. 
She  had  thought  of  this  from  Christmas  time 
until  the  following  autumn,  but  not  a  line  of  the 
book  had  she  written.  At  last  she  became  so 
tired  of  the  whole  thing  that  she  said  to  herself: 
*You  are  not  fitted  for  such  work.  Sit  down  and 
compose  stories  and  legends,  as  usual,  and  let 
another  write  this  book,  which  has  got  to  be 
serious  and  instructive,  and  in  which  there  m^ust 
not  be  one  untruthful  word.' 

"It  was  as  good  as  settled  that  she  would  abandon 
the  idea.  But  she  thought,  very  naturally,  it 
would  have  been  a  joy  to  write  something  beautiful 
about  Sweden,  and  it  was  hard  for  her  to  relin- 
quish her  work.  Finally,  it  occurred  to  her  that 
maybe  it  was  because  she  lived  in  the  city,  with 
only  gray   streets   and   house   walls   around   her. 


UVAi    HOME 


that  she  could  make  no  headway  with  the  writing. 
Perhaps  if  she  were  to  go  into  the  country,  where 
she  could  see  woods  and  fields,  it  might  go  better. 


"She  had  never  imagined  that  it  would  be  so 
wonderful  to  come  home!  As  she  sat  in  the  cart 
and  drove  toward  the  old  homestead  she  fancied 
that  she  was  growing  younger  and  j'ounger  every 
minute,  and  that  soon  she  would  no  longer  be 
an  oldish  person  with  hair  that  was  turning  gray, 
but  a  little  girl  in  short  skirts  with  a  long  flaxen 
braid.  As  she  recognized  each  farm  along  the 
road,  she  could  not  picture  anything  else  than 
that  everything  at  home  would  be  as  in  bygone 
days.  Her  father  and  mother  and  brothers  antl 
sisters  would  be  standing  on  the  porch  to  welcome 
her,  the  old  housekeei)er  would  run  to  the  kitchen 
window  to  see  who  was  coming,  and  Nero  and 
Freja  and  another  dog  or  two  would  come  boimd' 
ing  and  jumping  up  on  her. 

*'  The  nearer  she  approached  the  place  the  happier 
she  felt.  It  was  autumn,  which  meant  a  busy  time 
with  a  round  of  duties.  It  must  have  been  all 
these  varying  duties  which  prevented  home  from 


72  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


ever  being  monotonous.  All  along  the  way  the 
farmers  were  digging  potatoes,  and  probably 
they  would  be  doing  likewise  at  her  home.  That 
meant  that  they  must  begin  immediately  to 
grate  potatoes  and  make  potato  flour.  The 
autumn  had  been  a  mild  one;  she  wondered  if 
everything  in  the  garden  had  already  been  stored. 
The  cabbages  were  still  out,  but  perhaps  the  hops 
had  been  picked,  and  all  the  apples.     .     .     . 


"  She  had  heard  that  it  was  very  much  changed, 
and  it  certainly  was!  But  she  did  not  observe 
this  now  in  the  evening.  She  thought,  rather, 
that  everything  was  quite  the  same.  There 
was  the  pond,  which  in  her  youth  had  been  full 
of  carp  and  where  no  one  dared  fish,  because  it 
was  father's  wish  that  the  carp  should  be  left  in 
peace.  Over  there  were  the  menservants'  quar- 
ters, the  larder  and  barn,  with  the  farmyard  bell 
over  one  gable  and  the  weather-vane  over  the 
other.  The  house  yard  was  like  a  circular  room, 
with  no  outlook  in  any  direction,  as  it  had  been 
in  her  father's  time — for  he  had  not  the  heart  to 
cut  down  as  much  as  a  bush. 


II KR    HOME 


"She  lingered  in  the  shadow  under  the  big 
mountain-ash  at  the  entrance  to  the  farm,  and 
stood  looking  about  her.  As  she  stood  there  a 
strange  thing  happened :  a  flock  of  doves  came  and 
lit  beside  her. 

"She  could  hardly  believe  that  they  were  real 
birds,  for  doves  are  not  in  the  habit  of  moving 
about  after  sundown.  It  must  have  been  the 
beautiful  moonlight  that  had  awakened  them. 
They  must  have  thought  it  was  dawn  and  flown 
from  their  dove-cotes,  only  to  become  confused, 
hardly  knowing  where  they  were.  When  they 
saw  a  human  being  they  flew  over  to  her,  as  if  she 
would  set  them  right. 

"There  had  been  many  flocks  of  doves  at  the 
manor  when  her  parents  lived  there,  for  the  doves 
were  among  the  creatures  which  her  father  had 
taken  under  his  special  care.  If  one  ever  men- 
tioned the  killing  of  a  dove,  it  put  him  in  a  bad 
humour.  She  was  pleased  that  the  pretty  birds 
had  come  to  meet  her  in  the  old  home.  Who  could 
tell  but  the  doves  had  flown  out  in  the  night  to 
show  her  they  had  not  forgotten  that  once  upon  a 
time  they  had  a  good  home  there. 

"Perhaps  her  father  had  sent  his  birds  with  a 


74  SELMA   LAGERLOF 


greeting  to  her,  so  that  she  would  not  feel  so  sad 
and  lonely  when  she  came  to  her  former  home. 

"As  she  thought  of  this,  there  welled  up  within 
her  such  an  intense  longing  for  the  old  times  that 
her  eyes  filled  with  tears.  Life  had  been  beautiful 
in  this  place.  They  had  had  weeks  of  work  broken 
by  many  holiday  festivities.  They  had  toiled 
hard  all  day,  but  at  evening  they  had  gathered 
around  the  lamp  and  read  Tegner  and  Runeberg, 
' Fru'  Lenngren  and  ' MamselV  Bremer.  They 
had  cultivated  grain,  but  also  roses  and  jasmine. 


"  'Nowhere  else  in  the  world  do  they  know  how 
to  get  so  much  out  of  life  as  they  did  at  one  of 
these  little  homesteads  in  my  childhood!'  she 
thought.  'There  was  just  enough  work  and 
just  enough  play,  and  every  day  there  was  a  joy. 
How  I  should  love  to  come  back  here  again! 
Now  that  I  have  seen  the  place,  it  is  hard  to  leave 
it.' 

"Then  she  turned  to  the  flock  of  doves  and  said 
to  them — laughing  at  herself  all  the  while: 

"'Won't  you  fly  to  father  and  tell  him  that  I 
long  to  come  home.'^     I  have  wandered  long  enough 


HER    HO.MIO  75 


in  strange  j)laces.  Ask  liini  if  he  can't  arrange  it 
so  that  I  may  soon  turn  back  to  my  childhood's 
home.' 

"The  moment  she  had  said  this  the  flock  of 
doves  rose  and  flew  away.  She  tried  to  follow 
them  with  her  eyes,  but  they  vanished  instantly. 
It  was  as  if  the  whole  white  company  had  dis- 
solved in  the  shimmering  air. 

"The  doves  had  only  just  gone  when  she  heard  a 
couple  of  piercing  cries  from  the  garden,  and  as 
she  hastened  thither  she  saw  a  singular  sight. 
There  stood  a  tiny  midget,  no  taller  than  a  hand's 
breadth,  struggling  with  a  brown  owl.  At  first 
she  was  so  astonished  that  she  could  not  move. 
But  when  the  midget  cried  more  and  more  pitifully, 
she  stepped  up  quickly  and  parted  the  fighters. 

" '  I  understand  that  you  take  me  for  one  of  the 
tiny  folk,'  said  the  midget,  'but  I'm  a  human 
being,  like  yourself,  akhough  I  have  been  trans- 
formed by  an  elf.' 

"The  boy  did  not  mind  telling  her  of  his  adven- 
tures, and,  as  the  narrative  proceeded,  she  who 


76  SELMA    LAGERLOF 

listened  to  him  grew  more  and  more  astonished 
and  happy. 

" '  What  luck  to  run  across  one  who  has  travelled 
all  over  Sweden  on  the  back  of  a  goose!'  thought 
she.  'Just  this  which  he  is  relating  I  shall  write 
down  in  my  book.  Now  I  need  worry  no  more 
over  that  matter.  It  was  well  that  I  came  home. 
To  think  that  I  should  find  such  help  as  50on  as  I 
came  to  the  old  place!' 

"Instantly  another  thought  flashed  into  her  mind. 
She  had  sent  word  to  her  father  by  the  doves 
that  she  longed  for  home,  and  almost  immediately 
she  had  received  help  in  the  matter  she  had  pon- 
dered so  long.  Might  not  this  be  the  father's 
answer  to  her  prayer?" 


MISS    LAGERLOF   TO-DAY 

HERE  at  Marbacka  and  at  her  winter  home 
in  Falun,  Dalarne,  she  spends  her  time, 
writing  much  less  than  of  old  now  for  the 
demands  upon  her  time  and  energy  are  many  and 
great.  But  ever  more  generous  is  the  outpouring 
of  love  from  her  warm  human  understanding  and 
tender  woman's  heart.  Through  her  ready  knowl- 
edge of  the  other  Scandinavian  languages,  and 
with  English,  French,  German,  and  Italian  she 
keeps  abreast  of  all  the  great  world  movements. 
A  lover  of  solitude,  she  has  nevertheless  been 
visited  by  many  Americans  and  to  each  and  every 
one  she  put  more  questions  than  did  the  interviewer. 
Woman  suffrage.  Christian  Science,  Socialism, 
temperance,  and  the  war  in  all  its  relations  to 
neutrals  are  subjects  of  which  she  cannot  hear 
enough  from  Americans. 

Both  Marbacka  and  Falun  are  typical  Swedish 

homes    redolent   of   the   rich    store    of    tradition 

77 


78  SELMA    LAGERLOF 


behind  her  art.  The  winter  home  at  Falun  is  a 
picturesque  old  cottage  which  was  built  nearly 
200  years  ago,  and  unlike  the  prevailingly  austere 
architecture  of  the  province  it  has  a  quaint 
beauty  and  charm  that  sets  it  apart  from  its 
neighbours. 

Within  is  an  atmosphere  of  simple  dignity,  of 
warm  hospitality,  for  Miss  Lager lof  lives  and 
works  amidst  surroundings  in  harmony  with 
her  personality.  From  beneath  a  crown  of  white 
hair  her  eyes  look  at  and  through  one,  kindly  yet 
penetrating,  and  always  ready  to  twinkle  happily 
at  the  humour  which  she  sees  in  life.  For  years 
she  has  lived  in  these  two  homes  with  her  aged 
mother,  lavishing  love,  not  only  upon  those  near 
and  dear  to  her,  but  upon  all  humanity.  Miss 
Lagerlof's  father  died  when  she  was  a  young  girl, 
but  her  mother  lived  until  about  a  year  ago. 

Of  the  Americans  who  have  called  upon  Miss 
Lagerlof  perhaps  the  only  one  to  establish  a 
friendship  which  has  lasted  for  years,  and  grows 
closer  as  time  goes  on,  is  her  translator,  Mrs. 
Velma  Swanston  Howard.  The  account  of  the 
latter's  first  visit  to  Miss  Lagerlof  at  Falun  shows 
much  of  the  author's  personality.     Mrs.  Howard, 


MISS    LA(JEULOI"    T()-DAY  7!) 

as  iiientioned  before,  was  engaged  in  journalism  in 
Stockholm,  and  had  been  told  by  her  friends  that 
Miss  Lager  lof  never  saw  interviewers.  Mrs. 
Howard,  with  American  energy,  however,  opened  a 
correspondence  which  finally  resulted  in  an  invita- 
tion, not  for  an  interview,  but  simply  for  a  visit. 

Of  this  first  visit  Mrs,  Howard  said : 

"Miss  Lagerlof  received  me  with  the  cordiality 
of  old  friendship.  There  was  no  feeling  of  strange- 
ness. She  is  one  of  those  rare  personalities  with 
whom  one  may  think  aloud  without  fear  of  being 
misunderstood.  She  never  asks  a  personal  ques- 
tion. She  is  a  ravishing  listener.  She  was  then 
on  the  shady  side  of  forty — a  woman  of  medium 
height,  with  fine,  fair  face,  splendid  head  superbly 
set  on  neck  and  shoulders.  Her  beautiful  white 
hands — she  wears  a  five  and  a  half  glove — fasci- 
nated me.  Her  sense  of  humour  was  keen.  There 
was  a  twinkle  in  her  eye,  a  twist  about  the  mouth, 
a  certain  sly  humour  that  preceded  her  speech, 
while  her  chuckle  was  inimitable. 

"'Shall  we  go  to  the  park?'  she  asked,  appar- 
ently studying  how  best  to  entertain  me. 

"*If  you  do  not  object,  I  should  prefer  to  stay 
-where  we  are.'     Her  relief  was  obvious.     Then 


80  SELMA   LAGERLOF 


she  fell  to  questioning  me  about  America.  Her 
curiosity  was  insatiable.  She  was  eager  to  know 
about  American  women.  She  admired  their 
freedom,  vivacity,  initiative.  She  was  immensely 
interested  in  Mary  Baker  Eddy.  That  a  woman 
should  have  founded  a  religious  cult  of  such  tre- 
mendous following  amazed  and  delighted  her. 

'"I  have  not  been  allowed  to  interview  you,' 
I  laughingly  said  as  we  parted  that  night,  at 
eleven  o'clock.  'Now  I  shall  have  to  write  how 
I  have  been  interviewed  by  Sweden's  most  be- 
loved author.' 

"That  interview,  which  my  Stockholm  friends 
assured  me  was  not  to  be  had,"  concluded  Mrs. 
Howard,  "sowed  the  seed  of  a  friendship  that 
culminated  in  my  becoming  Miss  Lagerlof's  Eng- 
lish translator.'  I  had  two  unforgettable  days 
at  Viirmland,  on  my  last  visit  to  Sweden  in  the 
summer  of  1914,  and  although  my  hostess  was  at 
work  on  a  new  book  we  had  many  happy  hours 
together.  Strangely  enough,  the  dining  -room 
is  panelled  with  Washington  State  landscapes, 
painted  by  Miss  Lagerlof's  uncle,  who  lived  some 
years  at  Seattle." 

Sweden's  most  popular  author  now  passes  her* 


MISS    LAf;EULOK    T(>-DAV  SI 

summers  at  Marbacka  Manor,  the  home  of  her 
youth,  whieli  she  rebought  after  twenty  years' 
absence.  She  continues  to  employ  there,  to  the  cha- 
grin of  its  overseer,  a  corps  of  aged  servitors  whose 
youth  went  to  the  development  of  the  estate. 
Her  fifty -eight  fruitful  years  find  her  with  a  gener- 
ous income  from  her  books  and  plays,  and  it  is 
with  her  a  joy  to  spend  her  time  and  her  substance 
in  the  service  of  humanity  and  of  her  loved  ones. 


SELJVIA  LAGERLOF'S  SWEDEN 

Herewith  a  key  to  the  map  of  Sehna  Lagerlof's  Sweden 
giving  as  far  as  possible  the  exact  geographical  names  of  the 
places  Dr.  Lagerlof  gave  fictional  names  in  her  books. 

Actual  places  in  Roman  letters. 
Author's  fictional  names  in  Italic. 


FICTIONAL  NAME 

Loven  or  Long   Lake 

Ekehy  . 

Sjp       . 

Bjorne 

Lovik  . 

Brohy  . 

Bjbrksjon 

Sandvik 

Fors     . 

Bro 

Borg 

Svartsjo 

Ndrlunda 

Big  Marsh 


ACTUAL  GEOGRAPHICAL  NAME 

Lake  Fryken 

Rottneros 

Ojervik 

Sundsberg 

V.  Emtervik 

Amberg 

Lake  Rotinar 

Lysvik 

Bjorkefors 

Sunne 

Herresta 

O.  Emtervik 

On  Klar  River 

Bordering  Klar  River 


See: 
"The  Story 
of  Gosta 
Berling" 
"The  Girl 
From  the 
Marsh- 
croft" 
"Legends" 
Etc. 


^Liljecrorids  Lovdalla     Marbacka 


Doveness    . 
Dove  Lake 

Raglanda  . 
Munkhyttan 


The  Parish 


Skacks 
Skacks  Lake 


"The  Story  of  Gosta 

BerHng" 

"  The  Emperor  of      ' 

Portugallia" 

"Liljecrona's  Home" 

^  See: 

>  "The  Emperor  of 

J  Portugalia" 

See: 


Southwestern  Dalarne 

ITpsala 

Fifty  Mile  Forest 

Falun 

Nas 

Dal  River 

Gagnef 

Floda 


"From  a 
Swedish 
Home- 
stead" 


See: 
"Jerusalem" 


'Miss  Lagerlof's  own  native  home  where  "The  Story  of  Gosta  Berling"  and  most  of  her  other 
books  were  written. 
2Miss  Lagerlof's  winter  home  where  "Jerusalem"  was  written. 


■»y.-.<-.Y- ::•••.■■.:  ,  -; 


The   Northland  Edition 

OF  THE  WORKS  OF 

SELMA  LAGERLOF 

NINE  VOLUMES  BOUND  IN  LIMP  LEATHER 

Translated  by  Velma  Swanston  Howard 

The  Emperor  of  Portugallia 

Jerusalem 

The  Wonderful  Adventures  of  Nils 

The  Further  Adventures  of  Nils 

The  Girl  from  the  Marsh  Croft 

Translated  by  Pauline  Bancroft  Flach 

The  Story  of  Gosta  Berling 

The  Miracles  of  Antichrist 

Invisible  Links 

Translated  by  Jessie  Brochner 

From  a  Swedish  Homestead 

Each  volume,  net,  $1.75.      Nine  volumes,  boxed,  net,  $15.75 
(These  volumes  may  also  be  obtained  in  cloth) 

An  attractive  booklet  on  Selma  Lagerlof  and  her  works  will  be 

sent  free  on  request.     Booklets  on  Kipling,  Conrad 

and  O.  Henry  may  also  be  obtained 

PUBLISHED  BY 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 


NTRAL  UNIVEkoii 
versity  of  Californj 

DATE  DU: 


AA    000  947  931     2 


7  1977 


University  of  California  _ 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
-^nt;  ne  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17   •  Box  9biJoa 
^°     LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

RetumthiimatH!^^ 


1 


